Chapter 14 – Full Scope

I walked through complete darkness, and somehow I knew it wasn’t due to a lack of light, but rather, there was just nothing to see. Water just high enough to envelop my toes swished around my feet, the sound gentle and oddly soothing. Even though it was impossible to tell if I was making any meaningful progress in the endless void around me, I continued forward, feeling that I was getting closer to… where I needed to be.

Three hundred forty-three steps later, I stopped as I felt the hum of electricity, and something else. Not a physical sensation but an emotion, almost like… emptiness? Loneliness?

Slowly, I turned around, and was met with a somehow familiar sight.

Thorned vines made of lightning tangled together into the shape of a pillar, the electricity of each vine black at its core with violet, glowing edges. I took a step forward on instinct, and a small portion of the vines shifted, thorns rasping against each other in dozens of small electrical snaps. A window formed in the pillar’s webwork, and I looked within to see a familiar looking girl, naked yet gracefully veiled by some of the vines wrapped around her. She looked just as I had seen her before, a porcelain doll with raven tresses falling to her hips, chained and gently held aloft by the lightning vines. What caught my attention was that this time, her eyes were already partially open.

Scarlet and azure eyes looked on, her crescent pupils unfocused. She almost looked like she was sleeping, and her mouth moved ever so slightly as if she was saying something. I walked closer to her prison, straining to listen as I approached.

“Kanashī,” she murmured, her tiny voice velvet soft. “Sabishī. Kowai. Mou… gaman dekinai…”

Sad. Lonely. Scary. I can’t take it anymore…

I blinked, recognizing the Japanese. Even more, I recognized my own voice, but something in it was different. There was a barely noticeable undertone, a bass thrum that gave an unnatural weight to it.

I swallowed, staring at the girl for a moment before I worked up the courage to speak.

“Nande? Doushita no?” Why? What’s wrong? I asked her, my throat tightening as I somehow already knew what the answer would be.

She blinked, her eyes slowly opening more fully as she seemed to awaken, her eyes gaining a sheen of focus when she saw me. Gently, she gave me a mournful smile. Taking in a slow breath to answer, her mouth opened and-

“Mai?” the soft, concerned voice of Ji-woo suddenly interrupted, and the moment shattered.

My eyes shot open to be met with the dim light of unfamiliar surroundings. I shot upright with a gasp, my heart pounding. Sweat dripped down my brow as my entire body shook with adrenaline. I could feel my mind racing too fast for any one thought to become coherent, so I forced myself to take a deep breath, slowing my breathing as I began to reorient myself.

I was in the bed alcove of the guard’s barracks, the thin divider drawn closed. Layers of blankets covered me, more than I remembered tucking myself under, and I let out a shiver as cool air bit at me through my now uncovered clothes.

What was that? A dream? No… That room, that girl that looks like me, and those thorns… I remember them… from when I first formed my contract. Why didn’t I remember until now, though?

I frowned, my thoughts suddenly coming to a jarring halt.

Wait, remember what exactly? What was I just-

“Mai, are you alright?” Ji-woo asked from beyond the divider. “I thought I heard you thrashing around in there.”

“Um… yes,” I replied, hastily brushing down my hair and checking over myself. “Just… a bad dream.”

As I did, I suddenly remembered how I had fallen asleep. Panic fluttered through me even as a deep blush warmed my face. Part of me couldn’t believe that I had let myself fall apart like that, and I was all too aware of how much of a gibbering wreck I’d been, trying to apologize while Ji-woo tried to comfort me.

Even worse was the look on her face when I hadn’t managed to stop myself from flinching from her.

“That’s understandable,” Ji-woo replied, oblivious to my inner turmoil. “When all this is over, you might want to talk to a doctor about that, and the papers we’ll give you can help.”

There was an awkward silence, as if Ji-woo was considering something, but then she just let out a long sigh.

“Mai, could we talk for a bit?”

I winced. Reaching to my backpack, I pulled my eyepatch out from where I vaguely remembered storing it before I fell asleep. Pulling the straps over each ear, I gave myself one last check to make sure I was at least partially presentable. Then I took a deep breath, and pulled open the divider.

Ji-woo was standing a few steps away, and something about her tense, forced smile set my nerves on edge. I felt my breath catch in my throat and decided to just give her a nod. Selene sat on the floor beside her, staring up with gently swishing tails. Just seeing her there made me feel more at ease, and some of the panic lost its keen edge. My gaze snapped back to Ji-woo as she ran a hand through her hair and let out a sigh.

“Mai, I’m really sorry to have to ask you this. I wish there was time for you to process what you’ve been through, but there are… things happening, and we could really use all the help we can get. So… if you’re up for it, I was hoping I could ask you some questions about what you saw in the mall with a friend of mine.”

I felt myself relax, my breath leaving in a relieved sigh. That was something I could deal with, especially considering I had expected to have the conversation even earlier. If she wasn’t going to bring up my little breakdown, then I was more than happy to indulge her. Besides, I’d had more than enough time to go over the cover story in my head.

Nodding at Ji-woo, I began extracting myself from the bedding. As I did, I became all too aware of how sore I felt. The entire right side of my body ached, and my leg muscles felt uncomfortably tight. Meanwhile, my ankle throbbed in a line of dull heat. I did my best to ignore it all, putting my feet into the slippers I’d left outside the alcove. When I stood up, I made sure to do it slowly, forcing down a wince as the heat in my ankle took on a painful edge.

“Do you need more pain medication?” Ji-woo asked. “The stuff I gave you before should have worn off by now.”

“No thank you,” I shook my head, testing my weight a little more. “I’m okay.”

Ji-woo didn’t look entirely convinced, but she didn’t push the subject. I hesitated for a moment before I turned back to the sleeping alcove. I grabbed my backpack and put it on, not willing to leave it unattended. Ji-woo didn’t seem bothered by it, only motioning for me to follow with a tilt of her head.

As we left the barrack, I realized there was another thing I had to take care of, and I stopped in my tracks.

“Um…” I stuttered, looking around. “May I use the bathroom before we begin?”

Ji-woo blinked, then nodded, pointing behind me.

“Of course. Down this hall, fourth door on your left. All the rooms are labeled, so it should be fairly obvious. When you’re done, come find the room labeled ‘Command Center.’ It’s the first room in this hall before the entry area. Give the door a few hard knocks and we’ll let you in.”

I gave a grateful nod, and turned to follow her instructions. Selene hopped after me, and I found myself glancing at her as I took my time walking. For some reason, I felt like I had something I wanted to ask her… something about a dream? The more I tried to pin down the question, the more it seemed to flee my mind. Judging by how I’d reacted when Ji-woo woke me up, I’d been having a nightmare.

Which was completely unremarkable, so what exactly had I been meaning to ask Selene about?

Frowning, I gave her another look. Nothing came to me, and I gave a mental shrug. It was probably nothing, but watching Selene hop next to me did bring up a sudden question.

“So…” I thought to her. “Just how long can you stay manifested for, anyway?”

[It depends how much mana you spend to first manifest me, but the general time limit is one hour. When your mana is full, however, I can tap into the overflow of what you are regenerating to keep myself manifested. I took the liberty of doing so while you were asleep. Also, do not forget that I can simply appear in your vision as just an apparition, though that will be distinguishable by my form appearing semi-transparent.]

“Right,” I nodded. “It was a lot of information to take in at once… but I guess now that we’re safe, we have plenty of time for you to teach me everything.”

[Indeed!] Selene’s tails perked up. [After the officers ask their questions, I think it would be best to bring you up to speed on the things you’ve let me hold back from you. Also, we can begin talking about a variety of other important things, such as your Magical Girl codename, how to spend your stat points, and the potential Vaults, Grimoires, and Skills you might want! And that isn’t even going over things like daily, weekly, and monthly quests, or the rewards you have waiting for you once the Usurpation ends! There’s going to be so much shopping open to do!]

There was an infectious giddiness to Selene’s voice that made me smile softly, and I felt myself getting a little excited. I’d always liked planning out those sorts of things in video games, figuring out what sort of “build” would work best for the character I was playing. It was weird to think of my future in those terms, but in a way… it made me happier. Imagining myself not as who I was, but as some game protagonist made things seem so much more… fun? Exciting? I wasn’t quite sure what the correct word was, but it gave my stomach a little flutter of something.

All I had to do was get through a few questions first. Then I could spend as much time as I wanted talking to Selene.

I found the bathroom without trouble and freshened up. I could have spent some time making my hair less messy, but decided to just wet down some of the more unruly parts. It wasn’t really something I cared about, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to give a little attention to my appearance.

Feeling refreshed and a little more confident, I left the bathroom and went searching for the command center. Ji-woo’s directions made it easy, and the door’s label reassured me I’d found the right room. I knocked on the door, putting a little force into it like Ji-woo had told me.

The door opened to reveal Ji-woo. She gave me a smile, gesturing for me to enter.

“Take a seat wherever you feel comfortable. We’ve got the whole room to ourselves.”

The room in question was fairly simple at first glance. It had a long conference table with chairs down its length. At the far end though, there was a desk and chair facing a wall of monitors and displays, all of them turned off but one in the center showing a camera feed of the shelter’s entrance hallway.

My eyes skimmed past all that to a man who was sitting at the conference table, and I recognized the older officer with the salt-and-pepper hair from before. He gave me a nod, gesturing to one of the seats across from him. I gave a slight bow in response before I went and took a seat, setting my backpack in an empty chair beside me. To my surprise, Ji-woo took the remaining empty seat beside me, giving me a quick smile. Selene, meanwhile, just jumped up onto the table, and I suppressed a grin as she spun around a few times before sitting down.

“I’m Sergeant O’Malley,” the man across from the table began once I was seated, “and I’d like to start by thanking you for deciding to talk with us. I know it can’t be easy, but I can assure you that it is for a good reason.”

I found myself frowning at that but only gave a nod in response. I wasn’t sure what exactly he meant by that, but decided not to ask. Selene reacted in an equally curious way, her head tilting slightly.

“So, to begin with, I want to ask if you are familiar with the Usurpation Survival Act?” Sergeant O’Malley asked.

“It… protects people from actions they take to survive an Usurpation,” I started, furrowing my brow as I tried to recall what I’d been taught in class. “It says that actions that may otherwise be illegal can be sanctioned if determined to be a reasonable measure used to survive the Usurpation, sir.”

Sergeant O’Malley nodded, eyebrows raising slightly. That particular law was part of the reason I felt so comfortable with my liquor store trap earlier. Theoretically, something like that would be protected under the law, and the Arcadian government would be the one picking up the bill for the damages. That hadn’t exactly filled me with complete confidence, considering I knew how slippery laws were in reality, but Selene had assured me at the time that if all else failed, my status as a Magical Girl would give me immunity.

“That’s pretty much correct,” Sergeant O’Malley agreed. “The reason I bring it up is to let you know that no matter what you might have done, I can almost certainly guarantee you that it will be considered legal. For instance, the ice axe you arrived with. I feel fairly confident you didn’t come to the mall with it, meaning you had to, ah, requisition it. Something like that is no problem.”

I felt my cheeks flush. I’d almost completely forgotten I took that, and while stealing it was such a small thing compared to burning down the store, it still made me blush.

“I-”

“One last thing,” Ji-woo interrupted me gently. “Normally, this kind of conversation should be done with your parents around, or even a lawyer. I want to stress that this is not a formal interview, and anything you say won’t be recorded or reported officially. The only purpose of this conversation is to find out what conditions are like out there, and what tactics you used to survive. Do you understand?”

The curiosity in me gained a worried edge to it, something in Ji-woo’s voice giving her words a grim undertone, but I simply nodded in response. I glanced at Selene, whose tails had almost stopped moving completely.

“Selene, do you know what’s going on?”

[I do not believe so… There have been a few irregularities about this Usurpation, but I deemed them irrelevant to your immediate survival to discuss. Now that you are safe, I am beginning to have suspicions. If you wish, I could analyze the data on the main computer terminal here while they question you.]

“You can hack computers?” I blinked in surprise.

[As a Familiar, I share the access level you have as a Magical Girl. I am capable of interfacing with most magitech systems. Because the shelter belongs to the Arcadian government, I should have almost complete access to its information.]

“Oh… then please find out what’s going on.”

Without further comment, Selene hopped across the table and onto the desk at the far end of the room. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as her tails extended towards the surface of the table and then went through it. Her posture stiffened slightly, and the main monitor with the camera feed flickered for a millisecond. The officers showed no sign of being aware of it, only staring at me intently.

“If there is anything that you are still bothered to share with us,” Ji-woo continued nonchalantly. “Just add ‘hypothetically’ before you say what you did. I’m not really sure if that actually works, but it can’t be in all those TV shows if it doesn’t, right?”

Sergeant O’Malley let out an amused snort, and I gave a small smile even though I wasn’t sure what she was talking about.

“Yes ma’am,” I responded, settling into my chair a little more comfortably as the atmosphere relaxed.

“Well then,” Sergeant O’Malley glanced at Ji-woo for a second before giving me his full attention. “Why don’t we start at the beginning. Tell us what happened, and how you got here. Feel free to take as much time as you need.”

I nodded, and began telling my rehearsed story starting with getting split up from Lily. To my surprise, I was stopped almost immediately.

“Just a moment,” Sergeant O’Malley said. “You said you arrived here with your class?”

“Yes sir. It was a field trip for my entire grade.”

“And you were all on the third floor?”

“Yes sir. We were planning on working our way down as the day went on.”

Sergeant O’Malley and Ji-woo shared a look, and I felt myself tensing up as something unspoken passed between them. They turned back to me a moment later, giving me a nod.

“Please continue.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

After a moment of hesitation, I did. When I got to all the prep work I did in the sports store, I noticed Ji-woo’s eyebrows raising, and even Sergeant O’Malley looked vaguely impressed, giving a few nods. Then I got to my first encounter with an Anathema.

That was where I started my editing. The only part that really changed was the Anathema actually hurting me. Instead, once it pounced on me, I got a lucky hit with the ice axe and killed it before it could do anything. Other than that, I didn’t leave much out. Not about its freaky, serrated tail, or its slick black carapace, or the lamprey tongue it had, or its wicked claws, or-

“Mai?” Ji-woo interrupted softly. “Do you need to take a break?”

I looked up in surprise, suddenly aware how tightly my fists were clenched on the table. I could feel myself trembling, and a few spots of sweat had even formed on my brow. Quickly, I pulled my hands down to my lap and gave a jerky shake of my head.

“N-no. Sorry,” I looked down at the table.

“Don’t be,” Sergeant O’Malley replied, his granite firm voice somehow soothing. “Those details about the creature could be extremely useful.”

Again, I found myself frowning, and this time I didn’t bother to hide it as I looked between them in obvious confusion. Why would any of that matter? It wasn’t like he was out there fighting them, so why would he care about those things?

“Please, continue,” he insisted, “and don’t leave out any details about what kinds of Anathema you saw, or what they did.”

“I…” I started to ask, but found myself trailing off. In a way, it wasn’t really my place, and it didn’t really matter considering Selene would be able to tell me anything I wanted after this was over.

Ignoring the tightening knot in my stomach, I continued, omitting a few key elements. I never had a gun, never encountered the lone hound that I dispatched, and the rest was mostly me sneaking around. When I got to leaving Brian in the first floor security room, I said I went to scout ahead and found a bunch of Anathema around the main area leading to the shelter. I took my time to explain each type, and found them nodding along.

“When I saw all of them, I knew sneaking past would be impossible, so…” I felt myself trailing off. Geez, I knew I wasn’t going to get in trouble, but it didn’t stop the anxiety tingling across my nerves.