m.A.A.d City (Magical Burst)

Laura has proven significantly more difficult to track down since your last meeting with her as she has begun to disappear from school shortly after arriving. No doubt she must be having a hard time trying to balance leading the Sureños with a token attempt to keep up appearances as a studious student. Still, you need answers about that... Being that took over the girl after the Demon had been purged of its form. And now that Faith had been consumed by it Laura was pretty much your only source of more detailed knowledge of the deeper end of magic. Eventually though, you manage to set up a good time for the both of you to meet and discuss at a cafe after school.

You swirl your coffee around absentmindedly as you ponder many important things, like when Laura would be arriving and if you should have asked the barista for more whipped cream. Soon your thoughts are interrupted when the bespectacled girl enters flanked by two much more intimidating twins, Sureños no doubt. You think you hear her say something in Spanish as the two take a seat on a table just across from yours.

"I hope you don't mind the company I brought." Laura says as she sits down across from you, "Once it was out that I was going to a meeting they insisted on taking larger precautions."

"Understandable I guess." You reply as you remember how she was almost attacked on sight when Faith's fate was discovered, "We are a little out in the open... I mean, you are here after all aren't you?"

Laura flicks one of the menus over to you, "I am quite real, and not quite rude enough to send an illusion in my place even if some people told me to."

"Right, well, I guess we'll get straight to the point. " You say as you shift in your seat, "What I really wanted to talk to you about is the Being we ran into in the Colossus. I've never seen anything like that before, so I figured I ought to ask you to fill me in on it."

You watch Laura's eyes narrow behind her lenses, "Sorry, but I don't know much about that... abomination."

"Please! You have tell me, even if it's just what you've guessed. It's our best chance to find out what happened to Ella!"

Laura sizes you up for a moment before sighing, "I hope you've already asked Nephilim about how Demons are created?"

You nod silently.

"Then you'll know about the pooling of negative emotions. When we defeat Demons these emotions should become... resolved, at peace. That clearly didn't happen in this case, to me it appeared as if a third party intervened during the crucial purification process. I just can't imagine what sort of monster would do such a thing."

Reading between the lines as best as you can a chill begins to run down your spine. If she's implying what you think she's implying...

"If we don't know who did it maybe we could track them down by following that Being? They gotta give it orders somehow."

Laura sighs, "As much as I'd like to do that, I can't until this second war has been dealt with."

***

"Speaking of that situation," You say grabbing on the opportunity to steer the conversation, "from what I heard you had some experience being in the last war. We need to end it as quickly as possible, so I was wondering if you had any lessons you could pass on from the last one?"

"Well you heard right about fighting in the last war." Laura says while adjusting her glasses, "I guess I might as well catch you up on what happened then and you can probably pick out more than a few lessons from that."

"Fair enough."

"It all feels so long ago." Laura begins wistfully, "There used to be a time before the Sureño or Piru gangs ever existed. Back then there were so few of us: Isabella, Jasmine, Mao, Faith, my sister Catalina, and myself, we were all recruited together so we were just all one team. There were no older magical girls to impose old rivalries on us, and we had to stick together since no one knew about how to be a magical girl."

"But of course, it couldn't last forever. You know the story of how Mao died?" You explain you have a general picture of the events, after which Laura helpfully fills in the details for you.

"Besides her sister Hana, I think Catalina was the one who took Mao's death the worst. She was such a kind girl, always going out of her way to make sure the others were doing alright in and outside of magical girl duties. But after that incident she started to spend more time alone with Nephilim, she started keeping secrets, and she came up with her idea to bring revolution to the world."

Your eyebrows raise at that last statement, "Revolution."

"She wanted to change the rules magical girls were governed by. The growth of Mutations, how Demons were formed, wishes, the thirteen Seeds needed for them, everything. And she'd use her wish to get there. So when more magical girls started to get recruited Catalina went and began trying to see which of them would support her dream. By pooling all of our Seeds into one wish it should have been a simple goal, but... You can see how it went."

"Problem was that Faith had also been gathering a team of her own, but they only had greed on their mind using their wishes to get rich quick. Catalina initially wanted to ignore them and focus on getting Seeds as quickly as possible, but one of the girls that Faith had recruited ambushed one of ours and ended up getting killed in self-defense. I tried to explain to Faith and Jasmine what happened but Faith was having none of it, so the war started."

"The war wasn't pretty directly deadly, after all we're still just normal kids, when we saw a group of Pirus on patrol our first instinct wasn't to go for the kill but to shout at them, hurl a couple insults and maybe rough them up a bit to make sure they knew we meant business. Usually the only time it got deadly was if someone got cornered, animal instincts you know? But the side effects of the war meant we were spending all our energy fighting each other and not the Demons, and that was deadly. Everyone knew at least a handful of people who were affected by abandoning our duties."

"For about a year that continued, skirmishing and trying to do something about the Demon infestation whenever we had the time." Laura pauses for a moment and takes a deep breath, "Then Faith assassinated my sister. Snuck up on us on our way home from school with a group of her friends and just attacked, we tried the best we could to fight them off but it was no use. After my sister went down I almost lost my grip on my powers, nearly ended up killing Faith too."

"After that I was expected to take up the mantle of leader of the Sureños, but I was sick of fighting. It was tough, but I got into contact with Jasmine again and we were able to work out a deal. When Faith woke up we basically forced the truce onto her."

You stay silent for a moment looking at Laura, "So what's the plan this time?" you ask.

"We can't have a repeat of last time, especially not with that Being on the loose. I'll pull back for a while and train my friends to prepare them, then we strike and end it at once. Faith and Jasmine are gone, the Pirus have no real leadership to speak of, it'll be ugly but in the long run its actually the kindest thing to do."

"Laura! W-Wait up!"

"Well aren't I popular today?" you hear her mutter in Spanish as the bespectacled girl turns around, "Yes, Seraphina?"

"Sorry!" you huff as you put your hands on your knees, catching the magical girl proved to be much harder than you had expected due to her disappearing quickly after arriving to school.

"I just, really had a hard time catching you and I thought we needed to talk. Do you have time?"

Laura glances back for a moment before giving the approximation of a shrug, "Guess she won't mind waiting a little bit. What is it?"

"I wanted to talk about the murderer that is still on the loose. Whoever she is, she's caused too much chaos to be allowed to continue walking free!"

Adjusting her glasses Laura explains in her level tone, "Believe me, I'd like to be the first to confront anyone who killed my friend and sister. It's just not possible right now."

"What do you mean?" you ask.

"There's a small little war going on right now," she deadpans, "kinda hard to focus on hunting down a killer from a weeks old trail when you have to look over your shoulder for an ambush."

"Oh, right..." you say before rebounding quickly, "Well at the very least you could give me anything you might have and I could investigate for you. The Pirus don't want me dead after all!"

Laura frowns, "I'm not really sure I'd feel comfortable with you chasing after her alone, or even with your friends."

Now it's your turn to frown, "Hey don't look down on us, you've seen us in action! We're not the same rookies you met the first time around. And I've still got a couple tricks up my sleeve you haven't seen yet."

"I didn't mean it like that," Laura holds her hands up in a pacifying gesture, "but please think about who this killer probably is. Assuming Isabella and Ella were targeted by the same person that means that the killer was probably responsible for the creation of the Being that took Faith given where the Demon's Lair was placed. If there's even the chance that they have that Being at their beck and call then it's too dangerous to approach it without our full strength."

You grit your teeth, "Well what am I supposed to do then? Sit back and twiddle my thumbs."

"The most important thing you can do right now is make sure the Demon population stays under control, we won't be as capable of dealing with them while also fighting the Pirus." Laura says while putting a hand on your shoulder.

You sigh and nod, it's not perfect but at least you'll be able to continue keeping people safe. The extra Seeds you'd gather is just a bonus of course.

"Don't worry, we'll end this soon and then you'll have your hunt." Laura assures you as she departs.

***

Relaxation and recharging are all that happens, boring stuff really.

You look around, a nice, flat and wide roof with a couple of nearby roofs providing different levels of elevation. It wasn't by any means perfect, it was however "Good enough." You say to yourself with a nod.

Looking back you watch Alicia make a clumsy landing from one of her leaps. The girl was still getting a hang of the new freedom of movement that being a magical girl gave her. Still she was progressing by leaps and bounds (pun not intended) compared to Sera and yourself when you were less experienced. When you're in a good mood you tend to chalk that up to Alicia's age making her more receptive to relearning how to move given she has less muscle memory to rewrite. You can never keep the thoughts of Alicia's new passenger far from your mind though, and can't help but wonder if it has been contributing to Alicia's fast growth.

Beelzebub's dark form quickly follows Alicia, hanging just behind her. You grimace for a second, even if you've advised Alicia to avoid interacting to much with it you're powerless to control Beelze's own actions.

"So what are we going to learn today!? Are you going to teach me a special finishing move?" Alicia asks excitedly, emotions causing her forehead gem to gleam a little brighter. And for the Shade behind her to become a little less transparent.

"No." you shut her down with only a slight twinge of guilt as her face falls a little, "Finishing moves are nice and all, but if you can't to the end of a fight in one piece then they might as well be useless. Today I will be teaching you to defend yourself and to avoid overextension."

"Okay... How are we gonna do that?"

You tap your holstered pistols, dispelling them in a shower of embers before cracking your knuckles. "Best way I know how. Experience."

Alicia nods putting on an approximation of what you imagine is her "serious face" as she raises up her gauntlets.

A couple hours later you call an end to the training, it was rougher than you had expected but Alicia was an eager student so you felt like real progress had been made. While she was still at times a little overeager your task of protecting her had gotten easier as she has learned to avoid being baited into a terrible position.

"I think that's enough for today. You did well today." you say as you wrapping it up.

"We're done already?"

"Well I can't keep you away from home forever." you point out.

Alicia's face grows a bit more downcast at that, "Are- are you sure we can't hang out a little longer?"

"Well... I guess I do owe you one. Say, how does getting some ice cream to cool down with sound to you?"

In short order you find yourself being dragged along by Alicia as the girl begins to regale you with stories about her week. You can't help but smile for yourself, in these situations you can, for a short time at least, remember what it is that you were fighting for when you first became a Magical Girl. Maybe Jonas had been on to something after all...

***

You nervously twiddle your fingers as you wait for Jonas to come out from Art Club. Running different versions in your mind you try to figure out the best way to greet him after the incident that interrupted your last outing with him. You try to push out the horror-reel that your mind is playing of absolute worst case scenarios of Jonas's reaction.

"Erika?"

"Ah!" you jump, "Hey Jonas, didn't expect to run into you here. Small world and all that right?" you laugh nervously, suddenly very self-aware about your lack of social ability.

Jonas frowns, "I could have sworn I've told you about Art Club before..."

"Nope, I'm sure it's just your imagination."

"Huh, well what are you doing here? Don't you usually head home early this time of the week?"

You swallow, "Well, I was wondering if you'd like to spend some time together today? I mean, I totally understand if you don't want to, I was just thinking that maybe since we didn't get to last week-- Not that it'd be anything like last week of course!"

"Yeah, I guess I got time." Jonas says as he shoulders some art supplies over his shoulder.

You breathe a sigh of relief as the two of you walk away from your peers, "Thanks, I was really worried that you'd be worried, you know given last time. Not that I wouldn't understand, I mean I'm a little worried too. Losing control always seems to mean bad things for someone other than me, and I can't even control it. And even when I'm in control I still end up putting you in danger sometimes."

"I wasn't really in danger last week." Jonas points out, "The worst that happened was that those two Pirus stretched out my shirt a bit."

"But you have been before!"

Jonas frowns, "I... don't think so really? Unless you want to count when I calmed you down that one time, but Sera was there and you weren't that angry so it's a bit of a stretch."

You blink, you could have sworn you had to save Jonas after he was nearly killed in a lair a couple times... Or was that Ant' you were thinking of?

You shake your head, "Why'd I even get involved with this in the first place? I just wanted to protect others, but it seems like by even getting involved I can make things worse. Honestly it just feels like I'm doing nothing, all I can do is watch the people around me suffer and, if I'm lucky, delay our eventual deaths a little longer. There's gotta be a point to this, I can't just keep on going like that can I?"

"Well everyone has to die at some point, that's part of what defines being alive." Jonas reasons, "Delaying death is its own reward, since it means we get to spend more time being alive."

"Alive like this?"

"Alive with me?"

You nearly miss a step at Jonas's counter, no answer to it springs forth readily in your mind. Sighing, you lean your head against his shoulder as the two of you continue to walk. This time, in silence.

[Standard German disclaimer for this section]

"Hello, Nephilim." You greet coolly

'You wish to speak to us again Seraphina Ritter.' the blue ferret states.

"About Alicia, yes. I'm surprised you haven't already done something about it."

'What is there to be done about her?' Nephilim asks innocently.

"She might have a Demon bonded to her!" you burst out, "Aren't Demons supposed to be, like, your entire reason for messing with us in the first place?"

'Not entirely true, but We believe that is outside of the bounds of your intended question." Nephilim explains before continuing on. 'What makes you think Alicia Monroe's newest companion has any connection to a Demon? Demons are alwa- almost always confined to their Lair. They are generally incapable of coherent speech due to being driven mad by their torture of reliving the worst moments of their life. Her companion fills none of these criteria or any of the other common indicators of a Demon.'

"Then what is she?" you demand to know.

'Simply one of the ways her magic has chosen to manifest itself due to a Permanent Mutation.'

"But she called herself Beelzebub and a princess of darkness!"

'The form which her magic manifests itself into is greatly shaped by her environment.' Nephilim says simply.

'If you had been concerning yourself with the young girl's home life you would know she does not come from the most stable of households. Her mother is not in the best state of mental health and Jasmine Monroe's death has not contributed positively to that in any way. Her mother's treatment of her along with her religious background and her new experiences as a Magical Girl have lead to an environment where this magical anomaly has been shaped into the Beelzebub that you met.'

You quickly bury any sense of guilt you might have about not knowing what Alicia has been going through at home, at the moment you need to focus on what's important "If it's a Permanent Mutation then it's still putting her in danger, is there any way to get rid of it?"

'Permanent Mutations are called Permanent for a reason.' he quips.

You sigh getting a bit downcast "Very well, thank you for your time."

'It is my duty.' Nephilim flicks his tail as he exits.

***

See Steam PM

You sit down with Alicia at the park, not the one near her school but another one that holds less memories. The summer heat is beginning to pick up and the feeling of hot plastic against your skin where your doll arm ends has you wishing for Erika's power to control the temperature around her.

Alicia seems to be doing just fine though, hardly surprising seeing as she was born and raised here.

"Thanks for taking me out again." Alicia says quietly.

"It's no problem," you reassure her, "I just thought you'd being out after how crazy things have been."

Alicia nods but continues to stay silent.

"You know you can talk to me if you ever need help or just want to talk about what's going on." you tell her softly, "Things have been hard for everyone, there's nothing wrong with that."

Alicia grimaces for a moment before looking down at her feet. "Have you... Would you ever lie to me?"

"..." You weren't prepared for that question, not at all. You silently curse Erika, obviously that admission that she was lying to Alicia to keep her safe had rattled the girl more than either of you had thought it did initially.

And you can't even assure her that you won't seeing as you have made a few lies of omission given what you know about the true nature of Magical Girls.

"...If it was to keep you safe I would."

Alicia gets up from the bench you two are sitting on, "Jasmine, Erika, Afeni, even you. Everyone is focused on protecting me, but can't you see I can protect myself!? I'm a magical girl too!"

In a burst of wind you see her transformed into her magical girl regalia.

"I've got power!" she shouts, "I've got strength! Why won't you just treat me normally and let me help!?"

"Alicia..."

"Is.. Is it because you think I'm weak?" the young magical girl whispers.

The question stabs at your heart and you wince.

"No, you're not weak." you say trying to convince yourself just as much as Alicia, "There are just some problems that aren't so simple to deal with as that."

"Like what?"

"I... I can't tell you."

Alicia turns to look at you, and you can see that the little girl looks to be on the verge of tears.

"...I- I'll show you then. I'll become so strong you can't deny it, then you and Erika and everyone else won't have to protect me anymore!"

"Alicia!"

"You just watch me!" She announces before rocketing into the skies.

***

Standing on the doorstep of the del Bosque household you run through your mind the best way to approach the family in general and her younger brother Óscar in particular. You had already talked to them once as a concerned friend of Estefania and while you had gotten some information from them, the family seemed to be just attempting to provide you some comfort and send you off so that they could continue waiting on the Rosario Police to find something.

The doorknob begins to turn and you instinctively pull your hand back, it had been hovering right over their door. A young boy, Óscar most likely, nearly runs into you before blinking in confusion.

"Uhh, can I help you Miss?"

You take a second to compose yourself before answering, "Oh sorry, I'm Seraphina, Estefania's friend from track."

"Ah," the boy nods slowly, "I think my family said something about you. I'm Óscar by the ways."

"Right, they told me you were the last one to see Estefania. Do you mind if I ask you about that? I'm kinda worried for her."

A muffled voice comes from within the house.

" ¡Ya voy mamá!" Óscar shouts back before turning to you.

As he turns you catch a glimpse of his neck and your blood freezes. Located right along his jugular are two puncture marks that look very familiar to the ones that marked your neck back shortly before Estefania disappeared.

"Sorry, but I need to go run some errands." the young boy informs you.

"Oh, I can walk with you, don't worry." You insist just a little bit too hastily.

Óscar gives you an odd look before shrugging, "If you say so."

The two of you set out to the nearby market at a brisk pace. Trying not to stare at the puncture marks on his neck too much you decide to break the silence first.

"Back before Estefa disappeared, did... did you notice her acting strangely at all?"

"She's always acting weird." the boy says with a shrug, "So I guess... yeah, but no?"

You sigh, as accurate as that probably was it still wasn't very helpful. You decide to switch to a more direct tract.

"Well, what was she doing that was weird then?"

"She wanted to spend time alone together."

You frown, "She's your sister, that's not very strange."

Óscar shakes his head "We're always fighting, or taking sides when the others a fighting. And we already see each other a ton during the day, it was pretty weird to me when she said she wanted me to come with her on a jog up north."

"Up north?"

"Yeah, near some of the shutdown factories."

"Is that when you got..." You silently point to the side of your neck where the puncture marks would be.

Óscar gives you a confused look "What?"

"You know... Those marks you got on your neck."

He puts a hand to his neck, his fingers going over the puncture marks without noticing, "What are you talking about? Is there something on my neck? Did Tomas draw on it again?"

You stay silent for a moment before nodding, "I'm sure that must be it, sorry."

The young boy curses something but you're not listening to him to well right now. Why would Estefa attack her brother? And what did she want with him in the north?

You walk with Ant' to the agreed upon meeting point. You had invited Afeni as well, but the small girl had turned down the offer to meet with Laura only adding, "I'll still help you hunt down the Being, just tell me what you decide on after the meeting."

Ant twiddles his thumbs as the two of you continue walking.

"Nervous?" you ask.

"...What? Me? No, 'course not." he responds with a small quaver in his voice.

"You know you can talk to me if something's wrong."

"No, no." Ant' sighs, "Well, actually it's just the further I get into this magical girl stuff the more it's freaking me out. Especially since we went into the Colossus."

You grind your teeth for a moment, "It was my fault for letting you in there. Don't worry I'll make sure to protect you better in the future, I won't let that happen again."

Ant' lets out a choked noise from his throat, "Don't you get it? I'm not just worried about myself, I'm..."

"Oh just forget it." he concludes as he picks up the pace and begins to walk in front of you.

"Wait, Ant' what did you mean?" you rush to catch up with him.

Ant' acts like he didn't hear your question and instead chooses to greet the awaiting figures "Hey Laura."

"Good Afternoon Anthony, Erika." Laura greets, flanked by the large twins "I think its you're first time meeting the twins Anthony, this is Luz-Maria and Josephina-Maria."

Right after Ant' finishes the greetings you speak up "To get to the point quickly I asked you to come here to see if we couldn't get a proper fight going against that Being. We need to know what we're fighting against if we want to defeat it after all."

Ant' and Laura look at you with some surprise on their faces.

"Actively looking for a fight sounds a little risky Erika." Ant' says quietly.

"I must admit, after it defeated Faith I've become more worried about the damage it could cause." Laura adds.

"I know it's risky but we can't just do nothing!" you huff, "Look, we know it likes targeting Sureño girls when they are vulnerable and one of yours just lost her hand. Would you rather her have to fight that Being alone, or when all of us have set up an ambush to help her out?"

Ant' and Laura share a look, before bespectacled girl speaks up "It'll have to be planned out well if we want to make sure everyone stays as safe as possible."

"We'll need a place that's open enough that the Being can't easily hide and kill someone from the shadows or escape quickly if we injure it." Ant' says as he rubs his chin.

"But we'll also need multiple escape routes if it ends up being untouchable like Catalina said it was. Which will also mean it would be best to engage it from a distance."

"Sera can fly, can any of your girls do that as well? I think it'd be best to pair up as many people as we can with a flyer since as far as I know that Being can't fly. Going straight up into the air if things start to go wrong might be our best defense."

"Right." You say with a nod, "So I guess I can trust you two nerds to figure out the specifics?"

"It'll take a while." Laura admits, "We need to scout out the right battlefield and make sure that the best contingency plans are in place. You won't mind if I borrow Anthony for a while?"

"Take 'im." You say with a shrug.

"I'm standing right here." Ant' protests.

"In the mean time I would suggest being careful with traveling alone." Laura suggests, "You're tough, but Faith was tougher; and we don't know for sure who that Being might target next."

***

"You!" an accusatory growl escapes your throat, "I've been planning on talking with you."

'We noticed, so We came.' Nephilim says as he settles on your open windowsill.

The cool desert night air feels hot in your lungs as you try and process the best way to get the information you want out of that damned blue ferret. You had been hoping for more time to get your thoughts in order but like clockwork Nephilim shows up before you're prepared to face him.

"You're the one who got us into these pacts in the first place, so you'd know what to do if I want to leave this life." Already you can feel a bad taste in your mouth building, you know he's going to say that the magic stones are the only way of doing it.

'If you have the answer and are not willing to believe Us, then why do you persist with that line of questioning?'

"Get out of my head," You hiss, "And answer the damn question."

Nephilim shakes his head, 'It is true that the only possible way of leaving a pact is either through death or by gathering a wish. There was once a girl who spoke the high minded ideals of brining revolution to the world. You might know her by the name Catalina Castilla. She wanted to use her wish to change the rules Magical Girls were governed by, but in the end was killed by her enemies and had her dream abandoned by her sister.'

'And now you, Erika Engel, seek an exit you're not willing to believe exists. Your journey will be one much shorter than Catalina's was at this rate.'

"I'm not looking to leave." you protest, "There's too many people I have to protect. But if we can't give up this magic, then how are we ever going to be able to stop more demons from forming. You gotta know this already!"

'We thank you for understanding that you contribute more to the world as a magical girl than as a regular human.' Nephilim states, 'But it is Our regret to inform you that We have struggled with that problem for far longer than you have been alive. To Our knowledge, there is no way to end this cycle of magical girls turning into Demons. We can only mitigate its effects on the wider planet by controlling the amount of Magical Girl pacts that we sign. We aim to strike a balance between having enough in an area to quickly control the Demon population, without having so much that a cascade of Demonifications would lead to utter destruction of the human population.'

You scratch your head for a moment, "Well how did this cycle even get started in the first place? Without magical girls to become Demons none of this would have ever been a problem!"

Nephilim looks you straight in the eye as he gives his answer, 'We do not know.'

"What?"

'When We were created Demons, and thus presumably magical girls, already existed. Although to the best of Our knowledge We remain the only one's capable of making Patcs. However, there are a few theories We hold on what might have been the origin of magical girls.'

'Going back to Catalina's attempt to rewrite the rules magical girls were governed by, We believe that it is likely that this is not the first Universe to have existed. Magical girls like Catalina could have rewritten their universes before resulting in the one you exist in today. While there is no way of proving this for certain, it would explain how the cycle began before Our creation.'

You fall down on your bed, springs creaking on impact, "I'm... I'm gonna need a moment to process that, okay?"

'Very well.' Nephilim says as he hops out of your windowsill.