Prologue
(Several years ago)
“I can’t believe I fell for another gorgeous oninoko,” Sakura mumbled to her magical girl associate as they waited in the bushes beside the park path in ambush. “You’d think the seven girls already following him around would have clued me in.”
“Genjiro is handsome,” her pink-haired ally whispered back. “Friend” would have been too strong a term just yet.
“And charming,” Sakura replied. “They’re always so unicorns and puppies charming. It’s not fair, Kaeda san.”
“You knew it would be like this when you signed up. Self-pity won’t do us any good. Here they come,” Kaeda noted softly. “Of course. He has his sunny friend with him. He always has his perfect friend with him. Since when do sunny oninoko even have friends?”
“Quiet. Neither one has their harem, so we can at least avoid unnecessary casualties,” Sakura slid in the last word as the two stunningly handsome middle school boys approached down the path in the park.
The two magical girls waited until the boys were just a few steps away then emerged from the bushes with their star and heart tipped wands pointed out toward the two oninoko in judgement.
“This will be your end, Genjiro san,” Sakura quoted the company tag line in case any bystanders happened to be around. It was after midnight, but Tennoji was a bustling city, so it was hard to be sure. “You can’t deceive me.” He had for the past three weeks, but that was beside the point.
“L.O.V.E. always wins in the end!” Kaeda added the final touch by mentioning the magical girl agency they worked for. They had to advertise somehow. The sponsors whose logos were on their outfits need to know who to contact.
The long-haired Genjiro traded glances with his short-haired best friend, Tomio, a second before the ground exploded at the magical girls’ feet, sending both young ladies flying back into the bushes on either side.
“This is why we should just ambush them properly,” Sakura complained as she extricated herself from the bush. At least she had raised her shield in time. There was a reason two girls had been assigned to this particular case even if they didn’t get along at first.
“We can’t do that, Sakura,” Kaeda replied as she stood up. “There are rules.”
“Which they just broke,” Sakura complained as she fired off a bolt of pink lightning from the end of her wand. The bolt exploded harmlessly in the air between her and the devilishly handsome boys more to provide cover than actually attack. It would also let the bystanders know to get out of the way.
Kaeda twirled her wand disturbing the air with sparkles to cast a charm that would make her appear larger and more imposing. It worked almost immediately, evidenced by the other short-haired boy taking a worried step back. However, the target pretended to be unaffected. That was how she optimistically chose to interpret his unmoving response.
Kaeda sent three pink lightning strikes one after the other at Genjiro who either blocked them with some kind of wind blast or ducked behind a tree for the final one.
Sakura waited patiently for Kaeda to end her assault then jumped at Tomio like some insane kendo swordsman trying to split an enemy in half. Having to share the energy crystal back at HQ forced certain limitations that made coordination imperative. Pacing was crucial.
Tomio’s face split into a wicked grin as he punched the incoming end of Sakura’s wand. Both combatants went flying.
Sakura shielded herself in an energy ball that finally stopped halfway through the second tree. She made a point not to calculate the deduction from the reward to replace it. That would just depress her more than she already was. Tomio had plowed a furrow through the ground and stopped just shy of Sakura’s favorite bench. That would ruin the whole aesthetic until a grounds crew could patch it up.
Kaeda whipped her wand around like a mace as she pursued Genjiro around the trees. She had been paying attention to Master Naksone’s lessons and if even one of those strikes had landed, Genjiro’s fight would have been close to over… assuming they could finish him before he regenerated.
“I thought your friend loved me,” Genjiro stated to Kaeda as they traded explosive shots from behind two large trees.
“I thought you were a decent guy who would be satisfied with a single cute girlfriend,” Kaeda shot back.
“But you’re all so beautiful,” Genjiro replied as he tried to part her head from her shoulders with a slash of wind that took a slender lock of her hair. “You could be one of my lovelies. I’d make you one of my favorites. It’s not too late.” That charming wink he followed it with was more dangerous than the prior wind slash.
Kaeda fought down the powerful temptation and forced herself to answer with a pink explosion at the end of a lightning bolt. The handsome boy’s offer shouldn’t be so tempting, but it was. They always were.
“You’re my type Kaeda,” Genjiro called seductively from behind cover.
“Every girl is your type,” Kaeda rebutted.
“You got me,” Genjiro answered. “But you have the most beautiful eyes, and the confident way you stand is simply irresistible. I could go on if you like?”
“I thought you were in love with my friend,” Kaeda shot back along with another lightning strike that grounded itself on an intervening bench.
“You’re both very cute and wonderful in your own unique ways,” Genjiro replied ever so charmingly. “We could go out together, just the three of us and Tamiya for ice cream sometime. Tomio and his ladies could join us.”
“I don’t think you understand the meaning of any of the words you just said,” Kaeda replied dismissively as she rolled beneath another wind slash while trying to flank the oninoko.
“You’re beautiful, Kaeda. Why won’t you be mine?” Genjiro winked at her even as he sent another attack her way.
“Look up!” Tomio called as Sakura leapt down from the tree above Genjiro attempting to split him in half with an overhand strike that Genjiro dodged at the last moment. The impact of Sakura’s wand left a crater in the ground.
“I don’t want to be part of a collection,” Sakura complained as her next powerful swing missed removing Genjiro’s head by mere centimeters. “I thought I could be your girlfriend. Your only girlfriend. And now you’re hitting on my co-worker right in front of me! Seriously, who does that?!”
There was just a touch of fear in his eyes, but he still responded, “You’re both too beautiful to be seen by anyone else’s side but my own. I think you’d look best between Ao chan and Megumi chan.”
Sakura growled something guttural and redoubled her efforts in an attempt to bash in the lecherous fool’s skull with the end of her wand. Sadly, if she succeeded, Ao and Megumi would probably be angry at her for weeks. It was for their own good if they didn’t want to end up in their late thirties surrounded by six cats and working a dead-end job in the hopes of hearing a single, kind word each month. She knew.
That helped focus Sakura. Remembering why she made the sacrifices she did, helped her break through the charming aura emanating from the detestable oninoko. It was too bad that when she was done with him, she wouldn’t be able to so much as turn his scalp into a wig. That long hair would have been appreciated by one of the ladies at the cancer ward that her agency volunteered at.
Sakura felt Kaeda engage Tomio behind her. The magic of her co-worker had a certain intense feeling to it that she recognized as her co-worker’s signature. That let Sakura focus on Genjiro. He was the target tonight. They could deal with Tomio later once his minion was out of the way.
Sakura pressed her attack. This close in, the oninoko couldn’t cast his favored wind slash that he loved so much that he hadn’t even bothered to learn a melee weapon. It wouldn’t be much longer till his unarmed defense broke.
She added just a little less magic to her strike each time she swung to give the impression of wearing down, and to spare a bit more of the crystal’s power for her newish co-worker to distract Tomio.
“You’d be so cute by my side, Sakura,” Genjiro flashed her a gorgeous smile that nearly made her weak in the knees. She could almost feel his charm prodding her mental defenses. She needed to finish this soon before he started making her hesitate.
The next blow she put everything into. He raised his arm to block, but still focused the bulk of his magic on the charm he was attempting to cast over her. It was a fatal mistake.
Sakura’s wand crushed his forearm like a dry branch and the tip of her wand impacted his skull. She felt the charm spell drop almost instantly. She swung again only to have her blow blocked by his other forearm which snapped rather pleasingly to her ears.
“Tomio! Help me!” Genjiro called in the first real fearful tone she had heard. He rolled away from her third blow, screaming as he ground the bones in his already broken arms. The ground cratered behind him from Sakura’s wand.
Sakura raised her arms for another attempt but felt something pierce her own forearm. She lifted her eyes just long enough to note the slender blade of a stiletto had slid between the two bones and stuck out the other side.
It was just pain.
Sakura brought the wand down again and grazed Genjiro, who screamed yet again as he rolled out of the way. She probably screamed too, but that didn’t matter.
She swung yet again and caught the oninoko on the shoulder this time. She felt magic release from the end of her wand into the oninoko’s body scrambling enough of his atoms to get him to stop moving. He gritted his teeth at her, but at least the charm spell was no longer active.
“Hurry!” Kaeda called from somewhere behind her. “Tomio’s…”
Sakura brought her wand up again intending to knock him unconscious so she could turn him to ash without a fight. The blood was making her grip a bit difficult. And her muscles were protesting the damage.
There was a flash in front of her as Tomio dove over the top of his friend to save him from Sakura’s final strike.
The magical girl brought her wand down with all her might and struck Tomio, cracking his spine disgustingly.
“Run,” Tomio whispered faintly to Genjiro, whose body seemed to be pushed out magically from under the cover of his friend to a spot of grass several meters away. “Take my power and run, you idiot!” Tomio shouted again.
“That’s the boss! Burn him! Now!” Kaeda shouted as Genjiro struggled to his feet. “Forget the minion!”
Sakura’s bloody wand slipped from her grasp as the pain in her arm finally got through to her brain. She could only stand there gasping for breath over the broken oninoko staring up at her victoriously.
“Fine, I’ll do it,” Kaeda dashed up beside her and put her wand to the paralyzed oninoko’s neck.
A glowing pink mist flowed out from the end of the wand and covered the oninoko’s unmoving body, casting the gruesome scene in a neon light. Genjiro took one last horrified look at his evaporating best friend then stumbled away sobbing pathetically into the night.
Tomio looked up with a single blazing eye from where he had fallen and threatened with his last words, “You’ll never defeat the power of friendship.”
“Magical girls aren’t really all that magical. It’s more of a job title, and frankly, I think it may violate child labor laws, at least it would in North Vespucia,” Vivian MacDonald (Mac) explained to Scruffy, his number two, sitting beside him on the plane.
“I’m sorry I asked,” the unkempt elf replied.
“The mangas rarely get into the science behind it, and when they do, it’s completely wrong. My ex used to drone all day about…”
“Seriously, Boss. I’m fine. You can stop there,” Scruffy waved a hand trying to make the information dump stop.
Mac realized he had momentarily transformed into the very thing he despised most about elves, “My apologies, Fallen Two.”
“Thanks for understanding,” Scruffy breathed a sigh relief as he reached up to scratch the stubble on his chin.
Mac looked out the window past scruffy and noted two battle suits flying in formation a few hundred yards off the wingtip. The green camouflage one was probably Safety Ed. A misnomer in almost every way possible.
Scruffy tracked his eyes then commented, “Do you think Safety Ed wears his tin foil hat while piloting his battle suit?”
“He takes if off before putting on his helmet, and puts it back on while he’s waiting his turn for a ladder to exit,” Mac replied knowledgably.
At least the risk manager obeyed what he enforced. That included guard rail safety, use of handrails while on stairs, and double-checking fire extinguisher readiness. It did not include climbing over bottomless pits, throwing noobs into battle suits, or shark tanks in the children’s future center. Critical things like those were only mitigated to high risks.
Safety ED was also Mac’s dotted line boss who had taught him just about everything he needed to know about Hench Helpful Help that didn’t involve a battle suit.
“It looks like Safety Ed and Shock Leader Tiera Sardonyx didn’t try to kill each other on the flight over,” Scruffy noted the other battle suit flying just ahead of Safety Ed.
“You were asleep during that,” Mac commented.
“By the way, if you ever ask me to get something from that trollip’s (female troll) room again, I’m sending Fallen Seven,” Scruffy rehashed the past. “At least he’s got the nerve and skills to survive it.”
“The animatronic dolls are pretty creepy, aren’t they?”
“That doesn’t begin to describe them,” Scruffy shuddered involuntarily.
“Do you think she’ll ever convince Juice One to go out with her?” Mac asked. “It’s kind of hard to watch her fail like that so consistently.”
“And so embarrassingly,” Scruffy added.
The massive grey troll occupying multiple seats in front of them turned around when he heard his call sign, “She has chance. First, she need to learn what fun mean. I tease till then,” Grist smiled widely with just enough sparkle in his eye that Mac wasn’t sure how truthful the widower troll was being.
“Are you looking forward to using HQ’s practice dummies?” Mac asked the massive troll.
“Still try more with club,” Grist answered. “But long boom stick way more fun. Hit from far, far range.”
“Are you sure you want to keep trying melee?” Scruffy asked. “It seems like you’re more likely to hurt yourself.”
“Not give up. Try and try still more,” the determined bolt leader replied. A wide smile crossed his face and Grist pointed across the aisle to his daughter and Mac’s four-year-old son, Zach, passed out against each other. Their coloring books and crayons were still clutched in their hands. “She not look like Cerberus, like what bad guys say in cave. Janessa cute like wife.”
“Yep,” Mac agreed. The tiny trollip was quite precious… when she wasn’t launching food across the table at him or his son. With luck Janessa might teach Zach a bit of caution.
Mac’s ex had left him in the hospital with the young boy and gone off who knew where some months ago after the armored car incident. Mac had woken up just in time to avoid being terminated and then zombified to work on The Great Bencini’s children’s show.
“Will you help get Janessa in new class at H.Q.?” Grist asked politely.
That would mean talking with Mr. Hood and Olivia who ran the future centers.
Olivia. Mac smiled at the mere thought of her name. She was something else. Mac’s mind wandered as he imagined her green eyes and golden curls.
Joe had arranged for a failed group date that wound up… a disaster. Later, they’d had to free Olivia from the partial copy of Haley that had taken over the Future Center’s projection room. Olivia, probably, was the one who finally shut everything down.
Olivia was tough like that, and Haley feared her, which was all the more reason to like the golden-haired childcare-provider.
“Mac?” the troll asked.
“Yep. Of course,” Mac shook his head to escape his daydream.
Then Scruffy asked very delicately, “That wasn’t Haley interfering, was it?”
The AI materialized in Mac’s vision standing in the aisle like a stewardess. “Did you need augmentation or want to chat?” the wide-eyed avatar with green ones and zeroes running through her irises asked far too sweetly. She still wore the black choker adopted from his memories of Rieka.
Since she had been downloaded into Mac’s brain, only Mac could hear her.
Mac thought directly at her, I thought we discussed after you tried to kill me that you wouldn’t manifest except during an emergency, in a battle suit, or for our monthly chat?
“Call me,” the AI winked then vanished.
Yeah, no, Mac dismissed the annoyance.
“Not until just now,” Mac finally answered Scruffy.
“Are you okay, Mac?” the vampire sitting behind him placed a slender finger on his shoulder causing him to momentarily freeze in panic.
He glanced back and caught sight of Natalia’s beautiful brown eyes and her concerned expression. She had a prairie romance novel in her other hand, a finger saving her page.
“I’m good. I’m good,” Mac repeated.
Natalia was okay… for a vampire. As much as she hung around his neck, she had yet to actually bite him. She had stated that she liked him while they were battling Haley’s partial copy in the simulation. Mac could only assume that meant she saw him as her friend, presuming one could be friends with a blood-drinker.
Everyone else maintained a respectful distance from the “Dark Lady” that Mac could only envy. Everywhere he went, there she was. Breakfast, lunch and dinner she sat across the table from him like he was her only friend. She was also keeping an eye on Janessa for Grist and helping with table manners, so it wasn’t all bad.
“I worry about you sometimes,” Natalia stated softly. “I’d hate to have to break your sternum again. Amethyst was completely out of line.”
“Thanks for saving my life,” Mac repeated for the umpteenth time. Always show gratitude to a vampire if you value your life.
That curly redhead, Amethyst, had a beautiful north Anglic accent and an atrocious personality to match. The hot-headed beauty was probably piloting one of the escort battle suits covering the other side of the plane.
“They should have let me take care you while you were healing,” Natalia squeezed his shoulder gently.
“You had your own bolt to run,” Mac forced a smile as his eyes darted down fearfully to the hand on his shoulder. “Amethyst had to learn to get along with me… sort of. I still don’t remember signing the contract Safety Ed said we did. But she’s at least not actively trying to kill me anymore.”
“Back to tinkering with her precious machines,” the vampire stated with an understanding nod.
“Don’t break them, especially hers,” Mac warned. That had been his initial mistake, and one Amethyst still hadn’t forgiven him.
And then there was Joe Campbell. Mac’s attention was drawn away from Natalia as the massive hunk of hair and masculinity passed down the aisle to his seat in front of Grist.
The beastly man was unquestionably rude, but John, Fallen Six, seemed to see something in him… that no one else could.
Hopefully, Mac could avoid the self-important, walking muscle magazine ad for at least a few days after they arrived. Despite being Fallen Three’s boss, Mac had couldn’t throw the annoying stray back out onto the street without annoying leadership. Although, he could certainly imagine it.
The overhead speaker chimed and the pilot spoke over the intercom, “Please fasten your seat belts we are approaching corporate headquarters. We hope you’ve enjoyed your flight, and we would like to remind all the new-hires to not touch any unfamiliar equipment and to stay away from even the door to Miss Windsor’s workshop.”
The pilot then belatedly added, “That includes you, Joe Campbell.”
