(37)

  When the brunette's senses returned, the energy of the realm no longer felt so overbearing and omnipresent. It had faded to a gentle white, like being inside of an eggshell.

  She was also no longer transformed, clad in her casual weekend clothes she'd worn to the mall.

  "So I lost. It really happened."

  She wasn't the one who said it. Instead, her attention was drawn to Nariko, who likewise was back in her school uniform, wearing a sad smirk.

  Haru was the only other person there with them. All of the other Witches were gone. "You both fought very well," she insisted consolingly. "Sword Witch just has a knack for breaking the rules."

  Nariko scoffed. "You mean she's a cheater."

  The brunette shrugged. "All's fair, yadda, yadda." She took a step toward the other girl, though. "You're really her this time. Nariko Kelly. The Thunder Witch version."

  But the schoolgirl shook her head. "No, I'm still just a construct, and a fading one at that. But I'm based on everything Nariko Kelly is, all of her memories, everything she cares about. That ... hatred the Arbiter filled me with, though, that's broken. He must've given up on me when I lost."

  The brunette's face took on an austere expression. "Is there anything you want me to do?"

  Nariko gave a small chuckle and shook her head. "The usual. Hug my family, tell them I love them. Keep Yoshi out of trouble." Haru gave her arm a squeeze, and she turned toward her with a small smile as she returned the gesture. "Take care of Haru." And then back to the brunette. "All things I know that you're going to do, anyway. Because you're Nariko Kelly."

  But then she cracked half a grin. "Though there is one thing you could do that I don't think would come naturally to you. Could you avoid making such serious expressions with my face? It looks all wrong, and you're going to give us early wrinkles."

  The same expression reflexively spreads across the brunette's face. "I'll try."

  Haru threw her arms around Nariko's shoulders, bawling. "I don't want either of you to go! I just got you back!"

  Nariko's grin softened into a smile even as she nearly toppled over under the assault, but she pried the blonde's arms off and turned to brace her at arm's length. "Oh, Haru, I'm not going anywhere."

  The twintailed girl sniffed. "... You're not?"

  Nariko reached to her neck and pulled on a chain that Haru had always worn. The brunette always assumed it was just a necklace, but there was a locket at the base. Nariko popped it open like she was familiar with it.

  She smiled at the picture inside. "The fairgrounds. We'd just gotten into middle school."

  Haru giggled. "You ate a turkey leg so big you were holding it in two hands! You were so sick by the time you got through it that you swore off bird meat for a whole three months!"

  "It wasn't my fault," the other girl protested. "It was that last ride! The spinning was too much for anyone!"

  "Nobody else had stomach stuffing trailing out the window all the way home!"

  The girls laughed together over the shared memory, but finally, Nariko clicked the locket shut again and lifted Haru's palm to place it there.

  She closed the blonde's fingers over the metal capsule. "I'm staying right here, Haru." She tapped the hand again and repeated herself. "Right here. Whenever you need me, you just need to remember me, and I'll be right beside you."

  The blonde was tearing up again. "But I don't want to just remember you, Riko! That's all I've been doing!"

  But Nariko took both of her hands and folded them around the one holding the locket. "Listen to me, Haru. I am never, ever letting you go. I know it hurts sometimes, especially someone with as big a heart as you. But here, in here, you will never be alone. I promise you."

  She clenched the hand tighter. "Inside this locket, we're still back at that fair, time standing still forever and ever, and we'll be there every time you go back. And then, one day ..." Her gaze drifted to the brunette. "I don't know when it will be, but I'll come back there, too."

  The brunette only gave a reassuring nod. This was not her moment.

  Nariko smiled and turned back to Haru once more. "So Haru, I know it will be hard, but I want you to wait for me there, okay? Wait for me to come home, because nobody else will."

  Haru's eyes began to drift down, so Nariko took one hand and lifted her chin up again, to make their eyes meet. "Will you do it, Haru? Can I count on you?"

  And the smile Haru gave nearly caused the brunette's spectating heart to shatter. "I'll do it, Riko. I'll wait." She took a step away, still connected by Nariko's hands, but now standing more next to the brunette. "I'll wait as long as it takes for you to come back."

  The brunette finally spoke again, giving a half-nod to her counterpart, who was growing fainter by the moment. "And I'll keep your seat warm."

  At that, Nariko gave one final scoff. "Who are you kidding, you idiot? You're my ride."

  *  *  *

  The eggshell white of the magical plane faded into an indistinct haze that reformed itself into the more familiar shapes of the club room. Or, at least, the club room ceiling.

  The brunette blinked at the confusing sight, only beginning to realize that she was on her back. She took a moment to process the sounds around her. She registered the other Witches and Miss Sada talking quietly among themselves, but the other sounds she associated with the school were absent.

  So it was still Saturday. Or was Saturday again? In any case, the school seemed to be empty of students again, minus a club or two that had a weekend practice. Did that mean things were back to normal?

  Beside her, a familiar voice groaned quietly, but it was enough to get the attention of everyone else in the room, and suddenly there were four heads competing for space in her field of vision.

  "They're up!" Red nearly shouted. "Hey, are you two okay?"

  Alright, so rest was officially over. "Our ears won't be if you keep blasting like that a foot from our faces."

  Natsumi frowned at that, as if mulling something over. "Well, that's not enough to tell which one came back." She turned toward a white head in the field of view. "What do you think, Miss Sada?"

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  "I think you were a bit too loud, dear," the teacher replied, patting the redhead's arm. "I know you're excited that they're back, but let's try to remember our inside voice, hmm?"

  She frowned again, this time clearly not appreciating getting scolded, but she managed a muttered, "Sorry," under her breath.

  There was a shifting of cloth next to the brunette, and Haru's face joined the others. "... Are you getting up, Riko?"

  "I was thinking about it." Really, it was a little odd that she hadn't already started, so she couldn't fault the question. "Seems a bit crowded up there, though. A little room?"

  The faces all traded glances for a moment before pulling away a little.

  The brunette got an arm underneath her and shifted toward a sitting position. The instant she passed an unseen threshold, a shock of agony went from her tailbone all the way up her spine and into her skull.

  She hissed, eyes wide, but then clenched them tightly shut against the pounding that the pain caused in her head. "Agh, damn it, not again ...!"

  Haru was immediately there, supporting her, while the others wore looks of panic and concern. "Riko, what's wrong?!"

  "My everything! That's what's wrong!" She shifted in the girl's grip, trying to get off of whatever spot triggered that.

  "You were holding three spells at once," Reina recalled. "I wouldn't be surprised if you fried your magical pathways again."

  "And, y'know, I was fine while I was in there," the brunette insisted. "Even after the fight! But I get back here and ..." She tried to shift about for more comfort and hit the spot again. "Agh! What the--"

  Haru's hand came across her mouth, resulting in the words coming out muffled. As the pain settled down again, this earned her a flat glare from the brunette, which she replied to with a luminescent grin.

  "You didn't have this kind of response to burn-out," Ran observed. "You were in pain, yes, but you look like you are attempting to avoid something."

  "It's my tailbone," she provided. "My whole spine, too, all the way up into my skull. It feels like my whole nervous system's covered in glass shards, but it's especially bad up and down the main thoroughfare."

  There was another presence in the room, and a shadow fell across the light from the window.

  "Three spells simultaneously is impossible." The dark knight's voice filled the room even without being raised, and the pressure of the words caused her to flinch as if against a migraine.

  "We all saw her do it," Haru immediately rose to her defense, but Dakunaito raised a hand toward her.

  "I do not doubt that it occurred," he clarified. "Using the unique spells of another caster is also impossible, but her capacity to do so is well-documented."

  "Please, please don't make him talk more than necessary," the brunette pleaded with Haru. "His voice echoes in my skull like a racket ball."

  His heavy footfalls sounded like great weights dropping against the tile. He gave the witches in his path only a glare before Sarasa urged them to clear the way, and then he came before the still-sitting brunette and the blonde who was supporting her.

  She made an effort to sit up straighter even though her body protested. Dakunaito narrowed his coal-like eyes, perhaps trying to determine what the gesture meant, but said nothing of it.

  "Summon your blade, Sword Witch," he demanded, though he at least had the decency to speak it in his equivalent of softly.

  "Hold on," Natsumi immediately protested, striding toward him. "If you want someone to fight right now--"

  He stood up suddenly, his hand lashing out to backhand her across the face, and the girl went flying into the side of a cabinet in the corner.

  Ran and Reina immediately readied themselves for combat as Haru gripped the brunette closer, but she raised a hand toward them all. "Wait! Stop! Don't fight! He wasn't attacking me!"

  "But Homura--" Haru tried.

  "She was coming at him to attack," the brunette explained. "Of course he acted. Besides, she insulted his honor by suggesting he'd pick a fight with someone who can barely move." She sighed. "Somebody get that hothead back on her feet and then hold her there."

  The room settled for a moment as they considered the reason in her words, then Reina and Ran went to see to their teammate.

  Dakunaito watched for a moment before he gave a glance to Sarasa, who had only stood there with an arched eyebrow through the exchange, and then turned back to the brunette. As if it were an invitation, Miss Sada came over, as well.

  "You have foolish allies," he commented.

  "Maybe, but they're loyal," she replied. "I understand that's harder to say about demons."

  He grunted, his only response, and she raised her sword arm. The motion was easy enough, but when she went to summon the sword, she hissed again, a spike of pain traveling up into her forearm before the blade appeared.

  Haru gasped, while Miss Sada put a hand against her own cheek.

  "Oh dear," the teacher intoned.

  "It's broken!"

  Haru was right. The blade had tried to take the form of the short sword it always did, but the hilt was cracked and the blade looked snapped off along a rough, diagonal break. What was left was more like a jagged long knife that crackled along its severed edge.

  "Overloading evangelium and hordestadt," Dakunaito noted, "is also impossible."

  "I had to keep up," the brunette explained. "She was supercharging herself off of a plane of raw magic. I just kept pushing because it wasn't enough."

  Though he hadn't been there, he didn't ask who "she" was. Instead, he only gave her another instruction. "Call on the power of the choker."

  She tried, and she immediately threw her head back, crying out in pain. From her forehead, all the way down her spine and into her tailbone, her body screamed, and she gave voice to its protest. It felt like lightning gripped her neurons and pulled on them in every direction at once.

  She flailed and seized, her limbs striking everything within reach as Haru and Miss Sada tried to restrain her. It was like her body completely left her control. She was stuck in a careening car and the steering wheel had just come off in her hands. She couldn't even turn the choker back off again.

  And then a darkness came over her that stilled her. It was as if sleep settled over her limbs and her breathing shifted from jagged spasms to slow, deep cycles. The pain in her spine slipped away like joints popping back into place one at a time, until finally the jabbing agony in her temples settled and faded.

  "--Shardplague," Dakunaito was saying when her senses returned her to the light of the club room. He was standing off to the side, explaining it to Miss Sada. "It can happen when bonded weapons of lower tiers overload from being used by a demon with too much power."

  He drew his own blade to turn it over, as if for emphasis. "Because they are bonded, they cannot just detonate their entire being, and instead embed themselves in the demon's arcane pathways. The power that was too great for them to handle holds them there like a magnet, fusing them to the channels."

  "Is it permanent?" the teacher asked.

  "There has never been a need for treatment," he explained. "A demon can regulate their own output, aligning the channels to eliminate the issue. It is treated as a sign of immaturity and incompetence, rather than as one might a disease."

  He let out a deep sigh. "Of course, were we dealing with an experienced demon, able to properly regulate their own energies, we would not be in the position of this discussion to begin with."

  "Can you teach me?"

  The words from the brunette drew the attention of everyone in the room, and Haru, who was still holding her up, panicked. "Riko! You can't just ask a demon to train you! Even if it is Da-kun!"

  The knight growled, but moved back over to the witch. He gave Haru a passing glance, then a dismissive wave of his hand. "Release her."

  Haru hesitated, but the brunette gave her a nod, and the blonde stood up and stepped away.

  It hurt for the brunette to hold herself up, but less than it had initially. Had Dakunaito already seen to some of the alignment in order to turn the choker back off?

  "Stand up, Witch."

  The brunette pushed her way back to her feet. She gripped the table to pull herself up, and she teetered a bit when she got there, as her limbs still felt lethargic, but she straightened herself and stood upright before the demon.

  "Now, make such a ridiculous request of a demon lord properly, instead of doing it mewling from the ground."

  Properly? She took a gamble and made her way back down to her knees. She was, after all, asking to be his student. He seemed old-school like that. She ignored the way the other Witches gasped. This was too important to get hung up on pretense.

  "Lord Dakunaito, I ask you to teach me. Not just how to align my channels. Teach me how to win."

  His eyes held almost physical weight down on her. "Why?"

  "Because the Arbiter has too much power, and I have too little knowledge." She very carefully avoided saying she had too little actual power. "Because he expended himself too much in this exchange today, and this might be our only chance to prepare."

  She opened her eyes and said one more thing, calling to her understanding of his very nature. "Because I want to conquer my enemies."

  Dakunaito's eyes narrowed. "Do you know for what fate you ask? Do you think that my training will relent because you are mortal?"

  "No," she answered without hesitation. "If I did, I wouldn't bother asking. I expect Hell, itself, will seem pleasant by comparison. But we don't have time to be soft."

  Miss Sada took a deep breath before speaking. "It is true that the Arbiter will be unable to commit any overt acts for some time, a few months, perhaps. But their schooling is not yet over. I can relinquish her to you for one of them, over summer break."

  His eyes flashed as if indignant of needing permission, but the expressionless void within his helmet remained otherwise unchanged. "That will be enough. But then you teach her how to regulate her channels. That should be well within your scope."

  He sheathed his massive sword again and turned away from the group. "You are a disappointment that you have withheld such knowledge this long. The least you can do is make sure she is able to function by the time she is mine."

  And he turned and glared over his shoulder at the still-kneeling witch. "I will not waste my time with a cripple. If she is not at least that capable by Summer's dawn, I will refuse her, and kill her, myself."

  And he was gone.