Magical Girl First Meeting (Re-do)

The train ride had been awkward with the four of us having to get on the same train as the angry-looking girl we had subtly blackmailed just a few minutes prior, but it wasn’t long before we were at school and ready to wile the day away.

Morning lessons went by quickly, and before we knew it it was lunch. Mai suggested the four of us eat on the roof so we could discuss how we would proceed from her without prying ears, and everyone agreed. Just as we all went to leave, however, a familiar voice called out.

“Yo, Sora, got a minute to talk?“ The voice belonged to Kyoukei Mira, and it was a surprise to hear her call out to me of all people. While I would say she and I were friends, among the four of us she was definitely closest to Saki.

“Uhh, sure I guess.” I turned to the three girls who were waiting by the door. “I’ll join in a moment, go on ahead.”

The three nodded their affirmation before stepping out the classroom door, leaving me to turn my attention back to Kei.

Surprisingly, her expression was quite serious. Her love of gossip meant she often talked about less-than-savoury things as if they were completely normal, so this sudden serious attitude caught me off guard.

“Hey, you four have been acting weird lately. Is there something going on that I should be concerned about?” Despite the fact that she was prying once again, it seemed to be out of genuine concern for her friends.

“What makes you say that? I don’t think we’ve been all that different to normal.” I tried dodging the question. I couldn’t let anything slip, or there was a chance the whole school would figure it out.

“Then why did the four of you meet up with Shiko this morning? Especially at a station that you’d all have to go out of your way to get to?”

“How do you…” it had been a few hours at most and somehow word had already reached her ears. Her skills at finding gossip were truly second to none. “We just had business to discuss with her, but it’s nothing to be concerned about.”

“Are you sure? Shiko’s not exactly the friendly type, and you were hanging around that shady area of Shibuya too recently. There’s really nothing going on that I should be worried about?” Her concern was understandable. After all, these would be strange behaviours for anyone, let alone the four of us.

“I know how it looks, but the girls will be fine. We’re not getting involved in drugs or organised crime or anything if that’s what you’re worried about.” I tried to lighten the mood with a joke, but she seemed just as concerned as before.

“Hey, Sora? Can I ask you to promise me something?“

“What is it?”

“Please, do your best to keep them out of trouble.” She looked at me with pleading eyes. I had never known her to take something so seriously before. “I know Saki can be a bit of a menace, but she’s not a bad girl. She just doesn’t think things through properly. But you do. You have a good head on your shoulders. So no matter what happens, I wanna ask you to try and stop those girls from getting themselves hurt. Can you do that for me?”

I smiled in response to her honest request. “Whaddyou think they keep me around for me? It’s definitely not my good looks, after all.”

She chuckled a little, and the heavy mood lightened. “I’ll leave it to you, then. Good luck.”

“Thanks. I’ll make sure to keep ‘em in line.”

I left the classroom with a wave to Kei and headed to the roof. It was nice seeing her take something seriously for once.

But why did she keep talking about Shiko as if she knew her personally?

I shrugged that question off, assuming they were just casually acquainted in some way. Kei knew half the school, after all. Our resident gossip-broker certainly had her connections.

Besides, it was too nice of a day to overthink little things like that.

***

“Mai, I know you’re excited, but do you have to express that excitement by fiddling with my hair?”

“Yes.”

The school day had finally come to an end, and Saki & Mai practically dragged Nao and I to the roof where we had planned to meet Shiko. Unsurprisingly, the two of them were a little hyper with anticipation.

This time it was Saki that was pacing, muttering to herself as if practising what she was gonna say when Shiko finally got here. Mai, however, had taken to sitting behind me and playing with my hair.

“I spend a lot of time straightening it and getting all the knots out so you better not mess it all up.”

“I won’t, I won’t. But your hair is so pretty, Sora. Isn’t it a waste to not have a pretty girl playing with it too?”

“You’re very full of yourself for someone who’s making excuses.”

Truth be told, I found taking care of long hair to be a complete chore. I much preferred it when it was shorter, but it was a small price to pay to protect my identity.

While the other two brimmed with anticipation, Nao once again seemed a bundle of nerves.

“M-maybe Shiko-senpai changed her mind? Or get held up after class?” We had only been waiting a few minutes, but she already seemed worried that the plan had fallen through. Knowing her, her social anxiety was probably telling her it was her fault somehow.

I, on the other hand, was worried about something completely different.

“Hey, guys? Don’t you think this all seems, like, majorly sketchy?”

Everyone on the roof seemed to stop all at once and look at me. As the atmosphere turned a little chilly, I actually found myself missing Mai running her hands through my hair.

“How do you mean?” Mai’s tone was icier than normal. It had an air of ‘don’t ruin this for me.’

“It’s just… these magical girls have done everything in their power to protect their identities, right? It doesn’t really make much sense to me that they’d buckle as soon as some random group of girls starts chasing their tail.”

Silence fell as my companions stopped to think on my words. Despite their excitement, it seemed they were unable to fully disagree.

“Maybe it’s because we’re her kouhai? She trusts our promise about not blabbing because we respect her as a senpai?” Amai offered that answer, but I could tell from her tone she had little confidence in it.

“Shiko seemed pretty put out when I talked to her this morning. She didn’t seem to be in the trusting mood, at least.”

“I mean, we already know her identity and where the hideout is,” interjected Saki. “Maybe she feels like there’s no point hiding anything?”

“I guess that’s possible…” Saki’s point did make some form of sense. There’s little point hiding from someone who’s already found you. But still… “something about all of this just doesn’t sit ri-“

“Sorry to keep you waiting. Picked up a friend along the way.” My voice was cut off by the sudden entry of Aya Shiko, followed by a short freckled girl that I had never met

I couldn’t tell by their expressions if they had heard what I was saying, but I was suddenly very aware of how loud we had been speaking.

Shiko wore the same unfriendly glare as before, but I was beginning to think it was less a sign of displeasure and more just her resting face.

In contrast, the freckled girl at her side wore a welcoming smile and had a sort of bounciness to her gait. She seemed abundantly friendly. Almost too much so.

“These the girls you told me about, Ayacchi?” The bubbly girl’s voice was almost comically cheery as she spoke to her friend.

“They’re the ones.” Said cheerfulness was immediately stopped in it’s tracks by Shiko’s blunt and mannerless way of speaking.

Ignoring her companion’s rudeness, the chipper girl put her hand to her chin and looked all of us up and down. Part of me felt like she was actually sizing us up, though I dismissed that idea as me being a worry wort.

Suddenly, the girl clapped her hands together, and addressed us in that same bubbly manner as before.

“Pleasure t’mee’cha, girls. Name’s Kyoko Yokoshima, I’m a colleague of old sunshine and rainbows here.” She pointed her thumb towards Shiko, who rolled her eyes dramatically. “I don’t think any of us have met. Mind telling me all your names?”

“Saki Tachibana. I’m the one that keeps these girls in line. Pleasure t‘meet.” Saki stepped up to Yokoshima and offered her hand, which the other girl gladly shook.

“Name’s Amai Sugi. I’m the brains of this whole operation," said Amai smugly. She puffed out her chest and made a face that said ‘praise me,’ but no one bit the bait.

“S-Sunao Kobun. I-I-I-it’s nice to meet you.” Our meek third member filled the silence. Her introduction reminded me of how nervous she was around me when I first met the girls.

Realising that I was the only one yet to introduce myself, I begrudgingly said “…Sora. Nice to meet you.” Even if they were heroes of justice or whatever, I wasn’t about to just give my whole name to such a sketchy pair.

Yokoshima’s smile didn’t falter for a second, but I thought I saw Shiko’s eyes narrow when I spoke. Something about that girl set off alarm bells in my head.

“Alright, with introductions out of the way, it’s about time we get to business.” Everyone’s attention was immediately recaptured by Yokoshima. I noted that she seemed to have a talent for controlling the flow of conversation. “First things first, I wanna ask how you girls managed to find our hideout. Don’t worry, I’m not mad or anything. I just wanna know how four of my cute kouhai managed to find what we had assumed was a well hidden secret.”

Despite her friendly disposition, I was a little put off by the way she casually asserted her position in conversation. She managed to maintain the air of friendliness while also establishing herself as the authority figure with that line.

Of course, Mai had no such reservations.

“Well, most people wouldn’t have been able to figure it out, but with a genius such as myself on search it was inevitable that cracks would show eventually.” She proceeded to politely explain the series of events the led to us finding the hideout, with Yokoshima listening intently. “Finally, we confirmed that the base was in the sky by getting Saki to throw a stone at it. Which is also how we accidentally tripped your whole laser defence thing, hehe… sorry about that.”

“Ah, it’s no worries at all. Throwing a little stone ain’t gonna hurt that place. Still, I’m very impressed with your ability to track us down with so little information. I’d have never even considered that.” For all the doubt I had about her, I could tell that her reaction was at least in part genuine. She likely really never even though of Mai’s idea.

“Y’know, Kyoko, they never would have thrown that stone if you hadn’t insisted on flying the base over an empty lot instead of just doing it over someone’s home or something.” Shiko, who had been silent the whole time, finally spoke up. Her voice was twinged with irritation.

“You know we can’t, Ayacchi. Those vertical ownership laws they brought in back in 2029 would mean we’re trespassing on private land.”

“We spend our time committing vigilante justice and you’re worried about trespassing violations? On an invisible building?”

“What, you wanna add more crimes to our list?”

The two momentarily bickered like this, and I felt like I saw Yokoshima’s mask slip a bit. It was almost like watching Saki and Nao fight. Though Yokoshima’s overly friendly mannerisms reminded me more of Mai than Saki.

Eventually their little argument sputtered out, and they turned our attention back to us.

“Anyway, I’ve got an offer for you girls. Real one-time exclusive shit, y’know? As a reward for working so hard and for bringing this flaw in our plan to our attention.” Yokoshima’s beaming smile was back on her face, and it felt even more like someone wearing a mask than before. I just couldn’t put my finger on why.

“Ooh, what is it, what is it?”

Once again, Mai clearly did not share my concerns. She was completely starstruck by her chance to talk to her idols.

“How do you girls feel about a tour of the hideout? My treat, just this one time.”

The girls all responded to Yokoshima’s question with enthusiastic affirmation. Even Sunao, who rarely did anything to draw attention, was beaming with a bigger smile than I had even seen her sport.

I, on the other hand, had a sinking feeling. Something about this wasn’t right. It didn’t feel right. But what the hell was it?

Logically, I didn’t seem to have any reason to feel that way. This was the theoretically perfect result of this confrontation.

No, that’s precisely why it felt suspicious to me. It was too easy. Too perfect.

And what didn’t help was Shiko staring a hole through me from the other side of the group. Like she expected me to attack her at any moment or something.

I shook my head and tried to cast out all such ideas. I had falsely identified real people as kings of manipulation in the past, so the odds of that being the case here were relatively high.

Besides, my friends all seemed more excited than I had ever seen them.

Against the better judgement of every cell in my body, I relented and agreed to go with them.

I would protect them. It didn’t matter if it was against regular street thugs, armed attackers or even superpowered individuals, I would protect those girls in any situation.

I just prayed it wouldn’t come to that.