"I am Magical Girl Rosaria Celeste! And in the name of love and hope, you will be brought to justice!"

  I stared, stunned as Stel's aura radiated off her in a pinkish glow.

  She looked pletely different than the proper, reserved Elysia or the bratty, mischievous Eris.

  Her long, flowing pink hair fluttered as the air swirled around her and her ruffled dress and skirt fluttered and danced in the wind. A pi suddeched into her chest with a silver fsh, and red ribbons trailed her wrists and legs. Her twin swords transformed further into long, thin pink bdes that shone like mirrainst the streetlights, with pink jewels on each handle.

  She was...

  Magnifit.

  The girl in front of me had an air of fidend an undeniable anding presence. Her face was stern, but kind and loving at the same time, and her pink eyes were filled with an inner fire. This was the sister I'd scarcely known in the flesh.

  I wao say something, but my voice failed me.

  She walked forward, her heels clig against the asphalt as she approached Scrapper.

  Stel's twin swords fshed as they began to glhter and brighter.

  Scrapper's aura fred.

  Then, Scrapper Scuttler guffawed. His armor shifted, the scrap metal g, and the monster flexed its massive, muscur arms. His eyes fred with a crimson light that made my heart stop, and he began to chuckle, the ughter reverberating throughout the street.

  His voice sounded like the low grumble of thunder. "How... nostalgic."

  Scrapper's voice was rough and gravelly.

  Stel's pink eyes widened. She raised her sword as she pointed o him.

  "I know 'em eyes, missy," he said. His voice had an odd d at that made him sound old-fashioned. "Yer eyes remind me o' her. She had eyes just as fierce as yers." His gaze turo me and I froze, paralyzed with fear.

  I'd never felt this much raw power before. Scrapper's aura fred once again, sending a wave of energy crashing through the area like an invisible tsunami, makiumble backwards.

  "Ye too," he growled. "Yer aura, it's... familiar. Yeah, familiar indeed."

  I gulped.

  I couldn't move.

  "And the boy," he turo Kitsune, who was nursing a bck eye. "I tell. I've been doing this for far too long not to."

  Kitsune flinched.

  Scrapper stepped closer to the three of us, and we all instinctively stepped back. His eyes glowed brighter, and his helmet hissed. It raised with a loud g as his helmet split aracted into the back of the armor, revealing the face beh.

  He was bald with dark brown eyes and a chiseled jaw, with the scars of tless battles criss-crossing his skin. There were lines across his face, and his skin ale, his lips drawn into a tight line.

  He was old. His eyes, the color of a dark mahogany wood, seemed to pierto our souls. I felt like I was being judged by some a god, his gaze unwavering.

  His voice was deep, raspy, and had a strange, almost alien quality to it. "That pink t's power was so much stronger. But you three are just kids, ain'tcha?"

  He walked closer to Kitsune, his steps heavy aallic. Kitsuood still, shaking like a leaf, and the merary looked down at him. The old man chuckled.

  "I don't have anything to do with you kids," he growled. "You should run while you still . This is gonhe end for us old-timers soon."

  "What?!" Kitsune shouted. "What do you mean by that!?"

  He stopped. The merary looked at us again, and his gaze seemed to pierto my soul.

  "You three, and your little friends... You're too young to die. And I don't wanna kill any of you," he said. He then looked away and chuckled, his eyes closed. "I've been a doing this for a long, long time. Do it long enough, and proverbial debts pile up, and the money just gets in the way of what really matters."

  I wao say something. But I couldn't.

  He was a veteran merary, after all. He'd dohings that would have sent lesser men to an early grave.

  The armored merary shook his head, his voice soft and almost wistful.

  "But there's a debt that o be paid, and this job... well, I'm getting old and tired, and this is just Tuesday. Literally, it is. It's a slow day."

  I swallowed.

  I didn't uand.

  I didn't want to uand. I was scared of this man, ahere was a strange feeling of sadness, and... sympathy.

  And then I realized. This wasn't a battle between magical girls and a ferocious, uable supervilin from the ic books.

  "The world nearly ended a month ago. Yet here I am chasing down a snot-nosed punk and pretendin' to kill ya and put the fear of god into you. It's like the whole fu' thing is o," he growled, his eyes fshing with anger. "And then, after I finish this job, another, and then ahem old Stars, we scrapped much ba the day and I owe 'em o favor I couldn't pay back."

  Scrapper Scuttler, the merary who had made a career of killing heroes, looked at me. His gaze was so intense I couldn't help but look away. He stared into my soul.

  "I feel the power ing off of you three," he said, looking at Kitsuel, and I. "You're strong. But too young, too inexperienced. Ya 't win this. I'm giving you kids o ce to run before I have to make good on this bounty, and the tract."

  "We 't run away!" I shouted.

  The merary chuckled. "Of course not."

  He stepped forward, his foot g against the crete. "If you're not going to run... the's finish this."

  His eyes fred with energy and his aura swirled around him. I took a step back.

  He's to.

  I k, and it terrified me.

  I knew we didn't stand a ce.

  It wasn't a fight between knights and a supervilin. It was a fight between a young, naive, and inexperienced group of kids and an old, brokeeran who was far too experienced and powerful to be defeated by three children and their injured friends and panions. Celeste raised her swords as Kitsuepped forward, his hands raised in a martial arts stance. I raised my hand a barrier, and I could see Currant and Bck Star ready to fight, their faces set iermination.

  "ARRRRRRRGGHHHHHH!"

  But then, a frustrated scream ripped through the air.

  "Okay. Hold. The fu."

  Strawberry stomped forward, practically bristling at the merary.

  "I have. No idea what's going on here, and I'm too ky and too tired to give a shit," Strawberries yelled, her ears twitg. "What. The fuck are you talking about!? Is this like, some sorta old-timer code? What the fuck is this about a pink t!?"

  Strawberry! I wao yell out.

  She stomped forward, her eyes narrowed, her tail pointed in a hook shape. "Listen, I've had a bad fug day, alright? And you, the guy with the dumbass name of Scrapper Scuttler or whatever, don't get to talk like this is some sort of meaningful moment or a movie climax se. I just. Wao go shopping with friends. A some fug sushi. That. Is. All!"

  "Kid..." the merary started, but Strawberry cut him off, stomping her feet.

  "Don't 'Kid' me, you fu' grandpa! Do you know how hard it is to find some good sushi?! Especially after a bunch of demons came r out of the goddamned sky a month ago, and then there's a bunch of weird, crazy shit going on. Like, what's up with that!? Who gives a shit about your problems or whatever you have to say! tracts? Money?! Who gives a flying fuck about those? What I want to know is how the hell I find a pce to get a goddamned salmon roll now, because the city is pletely out of order, and the other pces I've been to have been total shit. I've been running around all goddamn night, and you know what we've got for it?! NOTHING!" she screamed.

  She stopped for a moment, breathing hard. Her eyes were wide and bloodshot. "All I wao do was eat some goddamned sushi. And now... Now I've gotta fight a giant robot man or something."

  Scrapper Scuttler stared at Strawberry. "You're a funny one."

  Strawberry's eye twitched. Her mouth opened in an inaudible scream. Her body began to shake with rage. She stomped towards him.

  "The one good bowl of uni in this city and you're standing in front of it! You even torched the goddamned pce!"

  Her body was shaking with pure, urained fury.

  "Ah, yes," the old merary said. He scratched the back of his head. "Sorry about that, but it was in my way."

  "In your way!?" she growled, her eyes wild. She ched her fists, grittieeth. "That's not even the worst part. The worst part is that you're just gonna walk away after this! Like, yonna walk away, and you won't evehered by it. Like it was just another job! Look around you! You just went on a fug tirade about being tired and old, but the sed it es down to it, it's all about the fug money!"

  Scrapper's mouth twitched. Strawberry didn't stop.

  "Look, I don't give a flying fuck about yue debts or your tract. You're an old man who should just fug retire, not some tragic fug figure! Stop pretending this has meaning! It doesn't!"

  She stomped towards Scrapper Scuttler, her face red, and her fists shaking with rage. "You know, you remind me of a lot of my old boss and manager when I was teag the junior boxing css. Always making excuses about how the work is too much, and the money is too little, and how there's a debt to be paid. Well guess what, you old fuck? I don't care about your money or your tracts, or whatever. All I care about is that bowl of uni, and you took it away from me! We're a bunch of kids! What kind of old man attacks a bunch of kids like us!?"

  He growled and his helmet slid bato his face. "Enough!"

  Scrapper Scuttler raised a massive arm, readying his arm-mounted bster on, but I stepped forward. I couldn't let Strawberry take on the brunt of the attack.

  She just stared at him, putting her head down. "You wanna know the worst part, old man? You wanna know why I'm really, really, really, REALLY angry? It's because I was actually starting to respect your sorry ass before you went on your little old-man, woe-is-life monologue, and theroyed the best restaurant I've been to since my home here was razed by fug extradimensional aliens!"

  Her ears shot up, her eyes fred, her hands were ched.

  Her tail sraight up, the into an upside-down 'U.'

  She poi him.

  "Because you know what, old man!? I've had it! You think this is your story or your life!? No, old man, this is OUR life! This is OUR life, and this is OUR story! All of us! Me, Lux, Celeste, Bck Star, Currant, Kitsune, everyone in Kaleidoscope, and our cssmates, and our teachers! The poor man you ran through with your sword back there was somebody's son or brother! We all have stories! We're not your supp characters, old man! This is OUR story!"

  Scrapper's eyes fred and he raised his on, fog ily on Cw Strawberry.

  "Enough talk. I'm finishing this..." he growled, c his face with his skull helmet in a snap.

  But a bst didn't e.

  "Hopeful Heart Alchemy..." I whispered.

  The world slowed down.

  And several things happe once.

  Celeste appeared in front of Strawberry with a pink fsh, holding up her swords with a multiyered barrier to shield the both of them.

  The air around them began to shimmer, the air being heavy and thick, the street lights flickering, the wind blowing with an unnatural strength. A green fsh of lightning and a gust of air blew past me. Kitsune's Lightning Overdrive had been activated.

  I felt a burning in my heart.

  I knew what to do. The words flowed from my lips.

  "Shadow Dance!" I shouted.

  My perception accelerated further. Everything slowed to a crawl, the world taking on a gray tint. I felt a burni as bd blue fmes covered my body. Wings of shadow erupted from my back, and I shot forward.

  I felt a presehin my soul, and the voice of a mother I never knew. As she had once been.

  My aura... pulsed, resonated, with Stel's, and the two auras merged. She felt warm, f.

  A pink and silver light radiated from her as I approached, and I could feel the presence of a powerful force behihe two auras, now one, swelled and pulsated.

  I could hear the whispers of a woman.

  It was my mother, speaking to me, guiding me, helping me. She was telling me what I o know.

  A brilliant, smiling peared beside her in my mind's eye. She was a radiant pink, and her eyes sparkled with a love that I knew could only have been hers. Her presence was like the sun on my back. I felt her putting a hand oe's shoulder.

  As if in a trance, Celeste raised her twin bdes, and a massive barrier expanded, blog Scrapper Scuttler's blow from above.

  My heart beat faster. The sound echoed in my head, the thump, thump, thump of my heartbeats. It felt like the beat of drums, like the music of the universe itself, and it was guiding me.

  My hand glowed with a purple light, the energy pulsing and throbbing,

  "Let the power of my love bee your bde, ahe strength of your heart bey armor," my mother's voice echoed in my mind. "Let the light of my hope bee a shield, and the darkness of my soul bee your wings. In the darkness I will be yuide."

  The sound of drums in my ears, I flew forward.

  A swirling miasma of bd blue fmes, and the sound of a heartbeat echoed around me. I felt the power of my heart, the power of my love, the power of my mother's love.

  The silhouette of a green woman with a fox's tail and ears fshed in front of me, and a burst of electricity shot through the air, the smell of ozone aricity permeating the area around us.

  The silhouette twirled an ornate green spear and poi forward.

  A figure emerged, joining with the image of my mother. A green woman with a long white fox tail and ears. She was dressed in a silver kimono with green lining, and she was smiling, her eyes twinkling with joy and mischief.

  The fox boy reappeared in a fsh of lightning, and he held a spear in hand. The ground exploded beh us, a pilr of lightning and a pilr of shadow shot up, the pilrs iwined in a helix of bd blue fire and lightning.

  "Raijin's Odori!" Kitsune shouted. A shock wave of air exploded around him.

  His eyes were wide and filled with determination as his aura fred. He was determio make sure I got my opening. The merary, however, repared, and he brought up his on.

  "Fuck outta here!" Strawberry cried. "I don't wanna have to look at yly old mug anymrandpa!"

  She threw an explosive uppercut that would've dohing to his body, but it threw off his aim, just for a fra of a sed, just enough to give Kitsuhe ce to unleash his own strike.

  His spear glowed a bright, crag, bluish green, the energy of lightning surrounding it.

  The helix of shadows and lightning closed in around us, the heat of the bd blue fmes seeping into my bones.

  And I threw my hand towards Kitsune.

  And suddenly, the fox boy's body was wreathed in shadow and lightning, his speed doubled.

  Kitsune's body was enveloped by a swirling bd green fire that crackled with lightning. Scrapper Scuttler reoriented his aim, but the fox boy was faster.

  Kitsune's form blurred, his movements were almost imperceptible, and I heard a thump, then the air around me exploded.

  The fox boy had unched a flurry of spear thrusts so fast, it looked like he had six spears at the same time.

  The spear was glowing and sparking, and each time it touched the armor of Scrapper's, a burst of lightning would shoot out and spread across the surface. The old merary's eyes were wide, his gaze darting bad forth.

  "Hearfelt Echo:" Celeste ted. "Sword of the Heavenly Empress!"

  The fox boy thrust the spear into the ter of the old merary's chest. There was a fsh of light and a shockwave of energy.

  A pink bde made out of pure, shimmering light maed, ae swung her sword. The bde of pink light shot forward, a long, crest bde that cut through the air with ease.

  The bde sliced through the air and smmed into the ter of the merary's waist.

  But to no avail. Kitsune's lightning was stopped by the armor's shields, and the pink sword bounced off the merary's chest pte, sending a spray of sparks and a loud screeetal oal.

  Scrapper Scuttler stood there for a sed, stunned, looking around.

  He let out a ugh, and a bst from his on, but Celeste held strong, her swlowing as she deflected it with one hand. Her eyes glinted with determination and a fire of their own.

  The old merary raised his on again, aiming it towards Kitsune. "You kids have some bite! But you're a hundred years too young to challenge me!"

  Kitsune flipped in midair, fshing me a wink as he pointed his spear back at me. The helix of bck fire and lightning spiraling around him bouo around my body.

  I saw the opportunity.

  "Sienna...!" I heard my mother's voice echo.

  I threw my hand out again and a bd blue miasma swirled around it.

  I didn't have the staggering, overwhelming mana my mother did. I didn't have her training or experience.

  I couldn't even do Shadow Dany own.

  But I could improvise.

  "Harmonizing Art: Raijin's Shadow Dance!" I screamed.

  Lightning shot through me as the fox boy and I moved together, our bodies merging and moving in perfeison.

  We shot through the air, a streak of lightning and a trail of shadow following our path as the miasma grew in iy and size. A trail of lightning followed me, and my shadowy wings expanded and grew as my body became wreathed in bck fmes and green lightning.

  His armor was too advaoo powerful to break through.

  He was too experieoo much.

  My mother, however, had notoriously used her emotions to fuel her attacks. She had the power to manipute a persoions and to use them as ons, to a certain degree.

  The old merary's eyes. His speech, and the pain and weariness he expressed, they spoke of someone who had seen and doerrible things. And he carried them with him. He was tired. Tired of the fighting, of the blood, of the killing. And he was tired of the weight of his sins.

  I threw my hand forward, the lightning from Kitsune's attack crag through me. He looked almost disdainfully at me, crag his knuckles as he drew his sword and swung.

  Celeste appeared between us, spinniwin bdes in an arc that sent the merary reeling, his bde defleg the strike with ease. He was a skilled warrior and he knew his craft. But Celeste wasn't going to give him the time to think about his strike.

  A pink fsh, and suddenly she was behind him.

  She swung her swords again, the air crag and splitting with a sound like thunder as she cut through the space. He was able to dodge, but the strike sent a wave of force through the ground and shattered the crete.

  I tucked into a dive as Kitsune's spear struck the merary in the chest. He didn't dodge this one.

  The old man looked at me as the spear hit him. I could feel the electricity from Kitsune's attack course through me, the lightning crag and snapping at my fiips.

  He baded Celeste away from him and blocked the fox boy's blow.

  I threw my hands out as the miasma swirled, my body glowing with an intense purple light that illumihe night and the alley.

  I closed my eyes, fog on all the ambient mana released during our brief skirmish, all of the emotions, and the miasma swirled, thied, coalesced.

  The mana gathered, and I felt a pull.

  And suddenly, a storm of bck fire and green lightning swirled in front of me, the fmes r with a life of their own. It was the culmination of a lifetime rets, a lifetime of pain and suffering. It was a storm of emotions that swirled and crashed in front of me, the fire raging as if it had bee free after a lifetime of being trapped inside.

  This Art was too expensive for me to use on my own ordinarily, and the strain of the power was taxing, even with Kitsune's support and the ambient mana. I grit my teeth as I forced the fmes into a ball, the lightning dang around it as I purified it into my own.

  And then I drew upon it, exploding forward as bck shadows and green lightning wreathed my body. I flew at the merary, my hands outstretched as I focused the energy into my palms.

  And I could see it, in the er of my eyes. I saw three glowing silhouettes appear around us. Three women, oh a long, white foxtail, another a tall woman with pink hair in a pink dress, a woman who looked almost like me but with blue eyes and lighter hair.

  "Shadow Art: Nightingale's Lament!" I screamed,

  He saw it. I saw it in his eyes in my mind's eye, the fear that filled him.

  His eyes were wide with terror. With reition.

  The merary brought his hands together in a defeance as I flew towards him.

  And then the world exploded into darkness.

  The fmes swirled and roared as a torrent of green and bck fmes and lightning ed the merary.

  And then it was over.