September 2024

  ***

  Several hours before Hifumi arrived…

  ***

  “Heave-ho!” Seika lifted the PC up from under the desk and carried it downstairs towards the office building’s ground floor, where her target, a storage room, was located. She already did this song and dance for every other PC setup in the office, finishing with her own. With Watanabe out of commission she ordered the rest of the editorial to work from home today to give her ample time to prepare her plan for tonight.

  She was going to confront Lethe. She had a plan how to do it, too, even without her own Magical Girl powers. All that was left was to prepare and to minimize the damage to her workplace as best as she could. Triple-Eye would cover anything that could be proven to be caused by supernatural entities, but that would require her to risk her secret identity becoming known to others. No, if she could manage to stop the collateral damage at a few desks and windows, things would be manageable by regular insurance.

  For that purpose she moved all expensive equipment (which she could reasonably carry) into storage and locked it. All that was left was the big copier/fax machine – way too large to be moved by her alone.

  If it breaks I’ll have to ask dad for a favor. Come to think of it, I haven’t visited in a while…

  She sighed and looked around. All the desks were pushed to the walls, so as not to clutter the middle of the room. The only room left as-is was one of the meeting rooms, where she prepared drinks and snacks for Hifumi.

  The Starfaring Maiden Volume 2 was released today, which was a good enough excuse to invite the girl for a little release after-party. Naturally, this was a pretense, and Seika intended to use her as bait. Lethe must have had some kind of way to tell if Seika was with her friends and acquaintances, the way she showed up to the café, so she bet on the monster appearing if she spent time with Hifumi.

  Seika fished her phone out of her pocket and opened LINE. Hifumi, Miori, Miyu and Momo were her only contacts – they exchanged information sometime in the past month. With Miori successfully convincing Seika to install the app, the proverbial flood gates opened – though it was more a trickle with only these three additional people interested in being able to reach her any time. As expected, Miyu was set to offline – her manager held on to her phone and locked it down to prevent anyone from trying to call or contact her otherwise.

  Momo was also offline, owed to the fact that she was in a whole different universe. And unless Madame Bille’s masterful craftsmanship covered cell towers that could send through the dimensional rift, this wouldn’t change.

  More worryingly, she hadn’t seen Miori online since their date – Seika couldn’t imagine that the blonde beauty would actually block her to avoid a love confession, so maybe she kept her phone off for the time being, as well. She just hoped that nothing happened to her.

  No matter – Hifumi was her real target. The young woman was set to online, always available to receive messages from her editor, or always ready to send her snippets of smut as a tease.

  Seika stared at her phone for a while before she started to type – slowly.

  I’m so very sorry for what I’m going to do.

  ‘Hifumi – congratulations on the release of volume 2. I have no doubt that we’ll soon have to order a reprint for this one, too.’

  She didn’t even notice that she used the given part of her author’s pen name. Her mind was in disarray, calling her ‘Hifumi’ in her thoughts instead of her ‘family’ name for a while now.

  She typed the next part of the message.

  ‘If you’d like, we could celebrate a little in private. Meet me at the office at 8pm when everyone else has left?’

  Now she needed to wait. She sat down on an office chair in the corner of the room and stared at the wall, recalling words of advice which Madame Bille gave her as she embarked on her way back home last month.

  ‘You never succeeded in slaying her because she is not a demon, not a grave walker, not a spirit, no. Your magic would have cut those down. She is a curse manifest. Kill her body and she simply reappears with a new one. However, she has to die to get this replacement. You can trap her, if need be.’

  Her phone vibrated, and she looked at Hifumi’s answer.

  ‘Sure, I’ll be there. Is there anything you’d like me to wear? LOL’

  “Something to wear?”

  Seika furrowed her brow and thought about it. She’d have to evacuate Hifumi, true. And the portal ring she possessed was tuned to Madame Bille’s castle. Maybe Hifumi should blend in, like she did?

  ‘Maybe something that wouldn’t look out of place in a fantasy world.’

  Send.

  “Seika…” Minerva let out a long sigh.

  “Hm? What is it?”

  “She thinks this is a date. Just the two of you. After hours. She’s a hopeless himejoshi who sometimes makes pretty eyes at you. And you just told her to wear cosplay.”

  Seika stared at her phone again and let Minerva’s words sink in. She typed her next message fast and in a panic.

  ‘Just kidding – come in whatever feels comfortable.’

  The message changed to read. There was no reply.

  “She’s probably quite angry with you.”

  “Ha. You might be right about that.”

  At this point, what’s one more thing I’ll have to apologize to her for?

  A few minutes after Hifumi arrived…

  ***

  Lethe felt a presence near Seika. A warm, gentle presence. A comforting one – her favorite little toy was oh so very fond of whoever this person was. The little seed she planted in Seika’s brain years ago did its work, sending the curse in human form waves of warm and so very human sensations.

  She had used this curse in the past few years for her little experiments with memory-related blood sacrifices. Every time Seika was finally honest with herself and uttered the magic words ‘I love you’, Lethe would come in and reap her harvest, leaving just enough to leave the soil of the lovers’ hearts fertile enough to grow another sweet fruit in one year’s time.

  She approached the office building, reading ‘Magic Collection Publishing’ on the frosted glass door. Lethe dissolved into a twister of leaves – and one by one they slipped through the little crack on the bottom of the door, letting her materialize on the inside.

  She took her time, walking through the entrance hall. There were a few comfortable seats prepared, probably for business partners. Further ahead was a storage room for paper, next to it a staircase leading upstairs. Lethe slowly ascended. She had all the time in the world, with her prey trapped together with a little mouse she would protect, no matter what.

  But there was no hope. Now that she was unable to wield Minerva, Seika would be just as helpless as said rodent. She might try to foolishly sacrifice herself, but there was no possibility for her to make any meaningful change.

  I will fully enjoy her twisting and contorting face as I make her watch me turn another one of the people she is so fond of into a breathless invalid.

  She looked around the floor she found herself on. Something seemed off. There were desks and chairs alright, but they were all pushed against the walls. Lethe was certainly not an expert when it came to what offices looked like, but this wasn’t it. Usually.

  “Hifumi is quite alright. If I may call you Seika?”

  She heard an unfamiliar voice.

  This must be Seika’s little companion…

  “Oh! Sure thing, Hifumi.”

  That one was Seika. Lethe gasped in anticipation as her hand closed around the nearby door’s knob and slowly opened it with a quiet click.

  There she was. Her victim in the flesh, engaged in conversation with a casually dressed girl who looked a decade her junior.

  “Hifumi, listen”

  Lethe looked at that ‘Hifumi’ girl, and noticed that the air in the room was full of strings carrying her memories. There were a lot of thoughts in that pretty little head of hers. Lethe casually brushed her hand against one of the strings as she was too busy keeping her eyes shut and panicking as Seika hugged her.

  A lot of fiction. Lethe couldn’t find a single real memory of significance, so she left the strings alone.

  “I’m sorry, Hifumi… for using you as bait.”

  Bait? You’re the one sitting in a trap, Seika…

  She crossed her arms and established eye contact with the hugged girl – and then a sudden headache split her skull. She saw that girl with fiery red hair and lipstick instead of her normal appearance, saw her dancing in a field of lilies. She didn’t know why, but she felt a searing hatred looking at her – as if she and her shouldn’t be existing at the same time, like some cosmic law was being broken by them making eye contact – and as soon as she saw this strange dream and felt all of those feelings, they vanished just as fast.

  What in the world…

  Apparently no time at all passed while she was subjected to this vision, so she continued by addressing Seika.

  “Cheating on your darling Miori? Naughty, naughty, Seika…”

  Seika reacted fast. She grabbed the girl with the teal streaks in her hair by the shoulders. A magic ring glowed on her finger and a portal opened – to a castle’s fireplace, it appeared.

  “I’ll make it up to you once this is over.”

  With those words Seika shoved the girl through the portal. As soon as she was through, it disappeared and Seika turned around to face Lethe, while the ring on her finger turned to ash.

  The very same trick Sol used to save her beloved Luna, moments before Lethe tore all the essential memories to live out of her. Luna still evaded her, and it irritated her to no end. And now this girl with that strange aura has eluded her as well. She would have loved to kill her – to remove that wrong presence from the world.

  “…I’ve been waiting for you, Lethe.”

  Somehow, all of a sudden, this mundane office worker carried herself with the confidence of a Magical Girl. Infuriating.

  “So you have. But there’s no way to run for you, now… your little trinket has turned to ash to save some girl I don’t even know.”

  Lethe stepped closer to Seika, her claw-like nails at the ready.

  “I wanted to make you watch as I let that girl suffocate, but if you refuse to partake in my entertainment with your eyes, I will take them instead.”

  “Bring it, then… if you can.”

  Lethe didn’t like the little smirk that Seika was wearing. That unwarranted confidence. Rage boiled within her.

  She jumped, fully ready to gouge out Seika’s eyes with her sharp talons, letting out a maniacal laugh. And then she was stopped mid-air, crashing against a magic shield.

  She blinked, slashing against the magic energies in front of her, causing the magic symbols to crackle in response, but she was not getting through. Seika cowered behind it, with her left arm covered in a golden bracer. The blue gemstone at its center shone brilliantly, projecting the force field.

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  “Tch. Your trinkets are not enough to stop me forever. They will run out and fade. Before long, you will be nothing more but another hapless victim.”

  Suddenly, a strange feeling of dread filled Lethe. Something made her stomach turn and she fell to one knee as the overpowering presence permeating the air overwhelmed her.

  “What in the… what did you do?!”

  Seika deactivated the barrier and stepped out of her protective bubble. Her ten fingers were all covered in different magic rings, her forearms protected by golden, mismatching bejeweled bracers. She wore an amulet and a tiara.

  In short, she was covered in magic artifacts.

  Kneeling down next to Lethe, the mundane woman grabbed the curse by her leafy hair and pulled her to eye level.

  “Among all the treasures I was handed by Madame Bille, there was a special one: This one prevents you from fleeing back to your dimension – or to leave this building physically. It is hidden somewhere inside the office – and to find it you will have to go through me.”

  Seika’s eyes narrowed, and she brought her face much closer to Lethe’s.

  “It will last for four hours. I wonder how many times I can make you die before its energies run out.”

  ‘This one is special, Paisen.’

  The note attached to the crown bore Miyu’s handwriting.

  ‘It can trap evil spirits, manifestations of curses or extradimensional invaders in a physical location for about four hours. They will also be weakened. It probably won’t render Lethe mortal all of a sudden, but if you need to trap her somewhere to think over your next move, it can give you an advantage.’

  Right now said crown was resting on the roof, sitting on top of the ashtray where Seika took her ‘breaks’ ever so often. She felt that it was some fitting irony that the object she needed to put up a fight without her transformation was overlooking the place where she transformed over and over again.

  Lethe looked pitiful as Seika pulled her hair – and for a moment it looked like her face was reverting into that of the scared girl who was murdered by a cruel king.

  ‘That thing isn’t Romy anymore,’ Madame Bille’s voice echoed in her head.

  Seika clenched her right hand to a fist – a ring activated, and her hand was immediately covered in rock. A strange vitality and power filled her body – especially her arm, rendering her able to resist the terrifying powers she unleashed onto Lethe’s head with a punch. It was pulverized in an instant and the decapitated body slumped onto the ground in front of Seika.

  Woops.

  She knew that actually killing Lethe was a bad move, since -

  Claws were striking at her back, aiming to sever her spinal cord. Seika twisted her body and the magic gemstone on her left bracer activated. A magic barrier unfolded in front of her, shaped like a Roman tower shield. Lethe’s strike stole some of the gemstone’s shine until it finally blackened and disintegrated, then Seika clenched her left hand into a fist, encasing it in the same rock as her right.

  “Taunt her. Drive her wild. Wound her ego and her base instincts take over. Just make sure you’re ready to face her using her raw brutality.”

  Despite her inability to transform, Minerva was still by her side, and even partially merged with her spirit to lend her the goddesses’ fighting expertise – as far as her tired and mundane body could keep up with it, at least.

  “Come on, then. You want my eyes? Get them if you can! Pluck them out of my skull or are you too weak to do so?!”

  She could see the green woman shake with rage – vines sprouted from her body, and she looked at Seika with frenzied eyes – which exploded again as she was hit by another rocky punch that took off her head.

  “Oh, looks like you actually aren’t able to take my eyes!”

  Now Lethe counterattacked. Seika could see movement from the corner of her left eye before the last body of Lethe even fully collapsed on the ground – she leaned to the side to barely dodge the oncoming vine, grabbing it with her rock-hard fists and snapping it in two – then she had to raise both arms and shield against another attack.

  A grinding sound could be heard as steely thorns were dragged against stone-hard forearms.

  It was the magic rings which gave out first, making Seika pull back as the corresponding artifacts on her fingers turned to ash, their flakes taken away by a little draft in the office building.

  Seika didn’t hesitate to grab another artifact from the chest she wore at her waist, retrieving a magic sword handle without a steel blade. Activating a button on the hilt, the blade manifested as a beam of golden energy. She slashed at the next vine coming her way and separated it from Lethe’s body.

  The appendage fell to the ground and Lethe let out a screech that startled Seika. The plantoid woman approached Seika – letting the blade impale her chest as she threw a punch that connected with Seika’s left cheek, and she thought she could hear a crunch. Lethe collapsed as the blade tore out of her chest and made the rest of her body hang by a thin thread.

  Seika stumbled and got punched by Lethe’s next incarnation who appeared right behind her. The force behind the punch was intense – and Seika thanked her foresight that she wore a protective charm as an immense pain shot through her face and she got launched out of the meeting room, into the open office area.

  She dropped the sword hilt while she fell, and it landed under one of the work desks with a clatter. She got on her feet and activated the bracer she wore on her right arm as Lethe followed for another attack.

  She’s annoyingly proficient in using her immortality for attacks.

  She blocked Lethe’s next punch – deflected it, even. Lethe looked on in surprise as the bracer made Seika a master in a martial art that didn’t exist on Earth.

  When she deflected Lethe’s arm to the side, it appeared as if it was suspended in time, vibrating at a weird frequency.

  Seika followed up with punches and kicks that didn’t appear fast to the naked eye, but dragged afterimages after them. Every time she struck a part of Lethe’s body it seemed like the vibrations that gave her own limbs that odd look were passed on to her enemy.

  After a barrage of attacks, Lethe was suspended in the air by her vibrating legs and arms – and even whichever vines she sprouted in an attempt to hit Seika.

  Did I do it? Is she restrained?

  “There’s something weird about this martial art. Stay vigilant!”

  Seika looked at Lethe, who stared at her with the two burning embers from her coal-colored eyes, hatred written in them.

  She lowered her arms to her sides; then, just as she allowed herself to relax, that motion seemed to start a chain reaction. the vibrating limbs grew larger and finally burst, taking whole chunks of Lethe with them.

  Seika shouted in surprise and stepped back, but she had to defend herself right after as a new Lethe attempted to impale her on a vine. She struck the appendage, causing it to vibrate as before – and as Seika attempted to repeat the motion to blow it up, Lethe surprised her by chopping off her own tendril with her sharp, claw-like nails.

  They repeated this exchange of blows until Seika’s bracer turned to ash and she needed to switch tactics, cursing all the while.

  Just as she grabbed into her magic chest and slipped on another bracer, Lethe was right behind her, grabbing her left arm and twisting it behind her back before she slammed Seika’s upper body and head down on one of the desks by the walls. Seika could feel her brain being rattled by the impact and felt dizzy.

  “Seika…”

  Lethe’s voice dripped with anger – even hatred, like the office worker’s act of defiance was a very deep and personal insult. Lethe’s vines grew from her body as Seika struggled. A smooth vine wrapped around her throat as the others slithered up her body.

  “Was this worth it? Throwing a tantrum like a child?”

  Lethe leaned forward, her breath hot against Seika’s neck before she whispered into her ear. The intimate closeness made Seika’s skin crawl.

  “You made me so angry… but also excited. Exhilarated… I’ve never had a victim struggle like this before without them killing themselves!”

  Lethe put her hand on Seika’s cheek – which revolted her to her core, making her struggle even more against Lethe’s grip, desperately trying to shake her off.

  “Keep still while I’m talking to you!” Lethe hissed, taking the hand off Seika’s side and ramming her long, sharp nails into her right shoulder from behind. Seika let out a pained scream as the razor-sharp claws pierced her flesh and, judging by the intensity of the pain, the bone of her shoulder blade. Lethe grinned, twisting her wrist slightly to widen the holes in Seika’s body. Seika’s eyesight filled with red from the sharp, intense pain and she felt her lungs burning from the scream she let out.

  “I want to humiliate you fully before I kill you. I don’t even care about your memories anymore! All I want to do right now… is to gouge out your eyes and impale you, bottom to top. I want to make you suffer. To scream for me to make it stop! And then…”

  A smooth vine slithered in Seika’s field of view – and rapidly extended sharp thorns.

  “…I’ll eviscerate you.”

  Lethe giggled, then laughed maniacally. Seika snapped out of her previous daze enough to feverishly think of a way out of her situation as adrenaline started to kick in. She saw two vines approaching her eyes, their tips shaping into spikes. She hyperventilated against the vine wrapped around her neck and mouth – then she clenched the hand of her twisted arm to a fist and let loose a fireball at point-blank range.

  Seika coughed and opened her eyes. Her office outfit was singed and torn in places, one of her glasses’ lenses was cracked and both the fireball ring as well as the ring of protection on her fingers turned to ash. The sharp, debilitating pain in her right shoulder persisted and she realized that some of the nails snapped and remained stuck in her flesh. Disintegrating a ring that offered relief from pain she grabbed the top of the nails and pulled them out of her shoulder one by one, screaming with each one despite the anesthetic effect of the magic.

  She quickly looked around as she tried to locate Lethe – smoke filled the room, activating the smoke detectors in the building and filling her ears with their loud shrieking. Her hated adversary was on the floor – a torso with a head and one intact arm.

  “Oh, Seika… Seika… I will not let this slide. No, no… I will not!”

  Seika thrust her hand into the magic chest to replace her discarded rings with new ones – and pulled out the handle of another magic weapon.

  She approached Lethe on the ground, who shot her a defiant look and slit her own throat with her sharp nails in response.

  Seika stopped in her tracks and activated the handle of the magic weapon she carried. Out of the top of the handle shot a short pole with an attached large hammer head. Seika lost her balance as the sudden heavy weight was added to her frame and stumbled to the side, with her injured arm unable to carry such a heavy hammer and immediately dropping it as she cursed her thoughtless choice of weapon.

  This moment of imbalance was all that the reappearing Lethe needed. She kneed the bent-over Seika straight in the stomach, sending her flying, and Seika landed under one of the office desks, reeling.

  Lethe picked up the hammer, needing at least two attempts before she got used to the balance and got it off the ground.

  “You’re just grabbing magical items at random, aren’t you? Here, let me show you how to use them.”

  Seika just got her composure back as she saw the hammer raised above Lethe’s head. It was all she could do to roll out of the way as it came flying, obliterating the desk and putting a hole in the wall behind it.

  Seika cursed and activated the next bracer, feeling herself filled with a brutal strength.

  I could have used that a few moments earlier…

  She gasped as something else took hold of her together with her newfound power. She started seeing red and felt herself lose control, standing with a terrible slouch and shuffling closer to Lethe.

  “My, what did you just use, Seika? You’re like a drug addict injecting herself with every needle she can find no matter what’s inside.”

  Lethe let out a mocking laugh but was silenced by a powerful punch that left a large hole in her chest.

  Seika was overwhelmed by intense hatred; all the pent-up anger from finding out what could have been if it weren’t for Lethe coalesced and made her lose her sight as the berserker rage took over. Seika only saw glimpses of incredible violence: whenever Lethe appeared she was simply obliterated, torn to shreds, ripped apart, had her head cleanly punched off her neck and more as Seika turned into an unthinking beast with inhuman power.

  As her vision cleared up again, she was on top of Lethe, pinning her wrists to the ground with her knees as she punched the cursed woman’s face alternatingly with both hands. She could hear her own voice yelling.

  “Nine years! This is for nine years that you stole from me!”

  Crunch. Her fist noisily connected to the already fractured ‘bones’ in Lethe’s face, bruising her even worse.

  “This is for what you did to Miyu!”

  Crunch.

  “For what you did to Ayame!”

  Crunch.

  “For what you did to Watanabe!”

  Crunch.

  “And for everyone whose memories you’ve ever stolen!”

  Crunch.

  Seika breathed heavily as she lifted her fist again, trembling from exhaustion – there wasn’t even a trace of ash on her right arm anymore – the bracer was entirely gone and had been for at least a minute. These past few punches were all her and her pent-up anger. Her honest feelings.

  “Don’t bother punching that one anymore. She’s dead.”

  Seika’s eyes widened, and she quickly turned around. That was when Lethe slashed the left half of her face with a casual flick of her wrist. Seika’s glasses went flying and landed under the desk behind her as she let out a short scream of pain and fell backwards, crawling away from Lethe, teeth clenched. The vision of her left eye filled with red, and Seika covered the left half of her face with a hand, fearing for its integrity.

  “Red is such a good color on you, Seika… you should really bleed from every inch of your body… and from every orifice.”

  Lethe’s cruel visage drew ever closer, reaching for Seika with her claw-like nails, and at that moment her hand was separated from her arm by a golden beam before the demon herself was sent backwards with a kick to her chest.

  Seika rose to her feet, wiping blood off her cheek with her left hand and blinking, opening her eye again, finding it luckily unhurt, just obstructed by blood from her brow. Her eyelid suffered scratches but protected her eye. She held the magic sword she dropped earlier in her right hand - she was fortunate enough that it slid under the desk she crawled to.

  Seika put her glasses back on and thoroughly enjoyed Lethe’s offended expression.

  “What’s wrong, Lethe? Didn’t you tell me you were going to take my eyes? You’re taking your sweet time… or is it that you are unable to take them from me? Despite all your best efforts?” she said with a defiant smile.

  She clenched her hand around the hilt of her sword, readying herself for further combat.

  Seika was possessed by a sudden clarity and a desire to enact justice, as if the sword itself filled her with renewed vigor and heroism. She dodged the vines that came her way and cleaved them, letting their separated tips fall uselessly to the ground as she advanced.

  She charged at Lethe, aiming for her intact hand. The demonic entity was already raising it to cut her own throat, to return with a fully able body and drag out the fight – but Seika wouldn’t have it. She was faster and cut Lethe’s arm at the elbow. Even as Lethe cheekily tried to lean into the blade’s beam to have her torso halved, Seika quickly adjusted the angle of her attack to avoid killing her, feeling Minerva’s spirit assisting her movements to compensate for her human reflexes.

  She swept her nemesis’ legs with a swift kick and finished by cutting through her knees, and finally, she used the tiara she was wearing this entire time. With its magic she summoned multiple arrows made of light, sending them down to the maimed Lethe and nailing the stumps of her limbs to the ground. Runes on the arrows activated and siphoned magic energy, sustaining themselves while leaving Lethe with no energy to grow her vines. Right after this, the tiara crumbled to dust, having fulfilled its singular purpose.

  Seika sighed and leaned against the wrecked ruin of her desk, opening the drawer. Most of her beloved energy drink cans were squished and leaked their contents, but she still found one that was in pristine condition, even if it was sticky with its neighbors’ liquid.

  She didn’t even care at this point and opened the can with her bare hands, even as it was soaked in sticky liquid.

  “I will get you! Whatever toy you are using to bind me here; it will run out! And once I’m free I’ll make you scream for weeks before I turn you into a homeless amnesiac with no purpose! With no one who remembers her!”

  Lethe strung together all sorts of threats and curses, detailing how she would violate, shame and murder Seika and all her associates and loved ones. Seika long stopped listening to her words, staring at the ceiling as she kept sipping her poisonous drink.

  The office was utterly wrecked. There were burn marks on the walls and cracks – and a war hammer-sized hole in one of them, to boot. The fireball’s explosion shattered this floor’s windows as well.

  The smoke detectors still beeped and blared, causing Seika a mild headache, so she grabbed a stepladder and turned them off one by one before she looked at the pitiful creature that was Lethe, still writhing on the ground, trying to escape the draining arrows that kept her confined.

  That was cathartic. Now to find Miori and get this over with.