May 2019

  ***

  Minerva Crimson was in a pinch. She was currently trapped in what appeared to be a purple bubble made from glass; it was translucent, so she could still see what was happening outside, but she was unable to move, restrained by strange energy shackles on her wrists and ankles as she hovered in the middle, stiff as a board and feeling herself being drained of her energies, as whatever kept her trapped fed on her.

  Every so often a strange shade in the shape of a human left the bubble, glitching like a corrupted video. They were like ghosts, grey and transparent with the occasional rainbow-colored glitch warping their appearances.

  One of them had the appearance of a librarian, yet another the appearance of a bride. The bride wasn’t alone, either. A second bride was next to her, and the two held hands, before they leaned towards each other and kissed.

  Two more brides appeared out of the bubble, laughing and dancing with each other. The worst part was that these weren’t just any random ghosts, but people Minerva recognized.

  This was herself, as Seika, marrying Miori. And herself, as Minerva, marrying Bellona. She recognized the librarian as her childhood dream: before she received the powers of a Magical Girl, she dreamed of having the same job as her mother. Another pair of ghosts emerged, which depicted her and her old friend Ayame hugging, and possibly even kissing, but Minerva wasn’t sure, as she couldn’t see their faces. Reconciliation, after a long time of separation due to the demon Lethe’s interference seemed to be the theme of these two specters.

  “Your dreams are beautiful.” A quiet voice said next to her. She looked to the side, at a woman wearing a venetian carnival mask, in a crimson outfit with golden decorations to match. Black wings sprouted from her back, which she used to keep herself level with Minerva as they floated above one of the main roads of Tokyo.

  “It must pain you so to never see these dreams come true. Oh, how it fulfills me to see them dance and perform for me…!” she exclaimed with a shaky voice, almost as if she was overly excited, or even aroused, then she rubbed her chin as she watched the brides dance with each other.

  “Such a beautiful sight. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone who so strongly dreamed of marrying two people like this at the same time. Is that what you look like outside of your transformation?”

  Minerva didn’t answer. It was bad enough that she saw her untransformed self due to that woman’s strange powers, so she wouldn’t hand feed her any more information. The sound of a battle came from below as Bellona was cleaving her way through roughly a hundred of those shades, careful not to let herself get touched by any of them, or she would share Minerva’s fate, and that of the twenty-odd people trapped in bubbles beside her.

  All these ghosts were the unfulfilled dreams of those who got trapped. The moment one of them touched a person, they got encased in a bubble and used to produce more ghosts, with every one of them taking on a different form. A girl produced odd, two-dimensional figures, looking like an amateur’s drawings; unfulfilled dreams of becoming an artist, maybe. Another person produced person-sized planes from their bubble, possibly an aspiring pilot who never got the chance, be it by failing the training, being physically impaired, or otherwise.

  “She is a fierce one.” the winged woman observed as Bellona kept any and all apparitions at bay with pikes, spears and long guns.

  “I wonder what her unfulfilled dreams look like.”

  “Don’t you... dare touch her!” Minerva managed to push out between gritted teeth.

  “Oh, of course. You love her, oh so dearly. I can already see that.”

  The villainess simply entered the bubble, wrapping her arms around Minerva from behind and looking at her from over her shoulder.

  “I would bet that… hm… could it be?”

  The jester pointed at the ghosts. First to the librarian Seika and bride Seika.

  “This one appears multiple times, so that has to be you.”

  She then gestured towards the ghosts of Miori and Ayame.

  “I wonder which of them is the true identity of the blue one down there… one of them must be her.”

  Minerva didn’t react, but the jester’s words made gears turn in her head, as she contemplated connections she never even thought about twice before.

  “Let’s watch her, then. Together. Will she be able to overcome all the unfulfilled dreams and wishes in her way to make her own dream a reality?”

  Minerva huffed and kept watching, even as the unsettling woman caressed her cheek and leaned her face against hers.

  “Is it really fair, to sacrifice everyone’s dreams for your own? See how happy the people look seeing them come to life.” She pointed a finger at the other bubbles. The ordinary people trapped in them looked at their ‘creations’ with strange expressions, shedding tears.

  “They’re crying tears of joy, seeing the things they already gave up on coming to life right in front of them. Isn’t it beautiful?”

  “They’re scared because you’re turning their hopes and dreams into twisted nightmares!” Minerva shouted.

  “Oh, so feisty!” the masked one let out a laugh, then she closed her hand around Minerva’s throat. She was choking, feeling immense pressure on her neck which threatened to hurt her even through her magical defenses.

  “Keep watching your girlfriend over there instead, hm?” The cruel creature forced Minerva’s face to turn towards Bellona, who appeared to be struggling. She summoned weapon after weapon to cut through the unrelenting torrent of ghostly apparitions, jumping from bubble to bubble and tearing them open to pull the civilians to safety. The constant back and forth was taking its toll on her, as she needed to watch her surroundings at all times.

  Finally, Bellona made eye contact with Minerva and saw the villainous creature choking her. Minerva saw a flash of anger in Bellona’s eyes and her mouth moving to form a silent ‘found you’ as she suddenly launched herself at high speed towards the bubble, summoning her halberd to her side.

  The outer layer cracked, and the creature let out a shocked gasp as the halberd’s tip drove through her left shoulder. The masked woman’s composed fa?ade cracked just like the bubble, and she let out a scream as she was driven back. She held her shoulder as blood gushed out of a wound, and Minerva suddenly realized that she was human. One of the fabled ‘evil adults’, as the Kuma Group put it.

  “This isn’t over!” The masked woman shouted as she summoned a scythe to her side, slashing reality itself with its obsidian blade and opening a wound in the air, which served as an escape route. With a final glance from cruel eyes under her mask, the masked woman dodged Bellona’s follow-up by vanishing into the weird space behind the rift, closing it immediately.

  “Coward!” Bellona barked, then she turned around in a panic. With the crimson woman’s departure, the bubbles and ghostly figures all around them collapsed, and the civilians were tumbling towards the ground, but strong winds safely broke their fall, cast by none other than Minerva herself.

  “A brute force attack right at the mastermind. That’s so like you.” Minerva chuckled before she turned around to face Bellona. “Thank you, partner.”

  The two withdrew from the scene of the incident, and after they were high up in the sky and some distance away, Bellona suddenly flew right in front of her and looked her in the eyes.

  “Partner? I don’t think so. Not after those dreams of yours that I’ve seen.”

  Minerva felt her face heat up as she blushed and looked to the side.

  “Flights of fancy, nothing more.”

  “Is that so? Here, Minerva… catch!”

  Minerva looked at Bellona and her eyes went wide as she recognized the glow of Ballona undoing her transformation. She caught Miori in her arms, who let herself be cradled in a princess carry with a smug expression.

  “Cheating on me with Bellona, hm? You’re lucky that I’m both.”

  Minerva’s mouth opened and closed like that of a fish before she shook her head and let out a laugh.

  “You… had me fooled. This entire time! I…”

  She stopped. There was pain shooting trough her, accompanied by a memory from last year. Miori, squirming in Lethe’s vines as the creature devoured all of the romantic progress Seika made with her, resetting her to their first meeting at Snack Starlight.

  As she was dwelling on her thoughts, Minerva felt a finger on her lips.

  “There is only one thing your dreams could mean. And I accept your confession, Senpai! I finally made you see that I am strong and capable, and you don’t have to ‘protect’ me with your cold distance.”

  Despite Minerva’s reservations, she leaned in for a kiss. Naturally, it never connected. Lethe’s fourth harvest commenced.

  ***

  November 2024

  ***

  Seika opened her eyes, staring at the ceiling of her bed- and living room. Remembering all the love confessions of the past years was beautiful, and just as tragic, with sweet words of love that never connected into a kiss.

  Finding out that Bellona and Miori are one like that… it is almost a perfect opening to our romance. And still, Lethe stole five more years from us.

  Seika checked the time on her phone. It was six in the morning on Friday, two days after the karaoke party. She promised Miori that she would be all hers tonight, and that they would finally do it. She felt excited, but also anxious about it, about the loss of her ‘virginity’, so to speak. Ayame relentlessly teased her about being a virgin back in college; she was the wilder one of the two who had boyfriends in high school, so her teasing stung just a little bit. Seika opened her drawer and looked at the racy lingerie which Momo made her buy one time, as a pretense ‘punishment’ from Miori, who promptly leaned into it. Her fingers gently traced the lace, and she pondered for a little bit. Thigh-high stockings and garter were added to the package and would be the most visible changes in her usual attire, if she had to forego her usual tights. She decided to go for it.

  After getting dressed for work she received a LINE and checked her phone – it was Ayame.

  ‘I’m leaving a little present on your work desk around lunch that should help make your first night with Miori an unforgettable experience. xoxo’

  Seika stared at her phone for a while, her brows rising as high as they could before she sent her answer.

  ‘How do you know about that?’

  The response came fast.

  ‘Oh, it was so obvious that you were going to do it soon – and you weren’t going to do it while she was drunk. And on Thursday she was at Snack Starlight.’

  Seika responded just as fast.

  ‘And the truth?’

  ‘Miori bragged about how she’s going to lose her virginity tonight.’

  Seika sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

  ‘I’ll see what you got for me. And… sorry for Miori’s drunken shenanigans. I don’t want to break your heart or toy with your feelings after all we went through, so please feel free to tell her off if she makes you any weird offers.’

  There was a long pause before the next message.

  ‘If I were worried about any of that I wouldn’t have accepted her invitation to kiss you both in the first place, Seika. You’re my friends and our shared friendship is sacred to me. I will not ruin it with feelings. Now, physical intimacy on the other hand… expect me to show up in your bedroom if Miori invites me!’

  Seika rolled her eyes and sent her reply.

  ‘You’re incorrigible. Alright, I’ll accept that for now.’

  Seika sat in her apartment at her low table, reading a manuscript which had been neatly printed out for her convenience. She flipped through the pages, enjoying a glass of barley tea from her fridge as she scanned the words and dove into the world they presented.

  The story was about a young pirate captain in a different world, one made up of a vast ocean and many islands, some smaller or greater than others. It started with the captain’s childhood and her desire to become an adventurer, which led her to drag her friend into the pirate’s life. They snuck aboard a pirate vessel as it anchored in front of their sleepy island town, endured the whipping for being stowaways and started working.

  The protagonist quickly proved her worth and fit right in with the crew, leading cannon teams and subduing the most enemy defenders during boarding actions, making the crew trust her.

  After a strange incident, she managed to take over command and led the vessel into raids on merchant ships, finding a treasure map on one of them. She put the matter to a vote and after her crew’s agreement, an adventure story started.

  “This is a little odd.” Seika commented to her guest. Mana Kanno, the young witch, now dressed in a regular middle schooler’s uniform, sat on the opposite side of her low table, sipping on her own glass of barley tea.

  “How so?” she asked innocently.

  “You have surprising knowledge of terms used on sailing ships, of what needs to be done by sailing crews and the like, as if this wasn’t fiction, but someone’s life story that you witnessed. And yet, after this point…”

  Seika tapped on the passage detailing the vote.

  “…it appears more like you’re making things up as you go.”

  The young witch turned her head to the side, visibly gulping.

  A few days ago MagiColle received Mana’s manuscript in their mailbox. Watanabe wanted to reject it outright, citing ‘We scout, we don’t take applications’, but Seika convinced him to give it a chance, and to let her be the one to meet the author, especially after seeing the name written on the first page.

  ‘A Lifetime of Adventure at Sea’ was the title of the novel sent in, and the quality was surprisingly solid for a fourteen-year-old. Seika wanted to meet Mana, and after sensing that there would be otherworldly topics that could be broached, she decided to do the in-person review in her own apartment, rather than a public place or the office.

  “It’s alright to tell me, Mana. You know I’m a Magical Girl and you kept my secret, as far as I can tell. I’ll offer you the same courtesy. Oh… want to eat lunch?”

  Seika smiled as she got up, still looking at the young girl.

  “Oh, uhm… sure!” Mana replied, returning her smile awkwardly.

  She got up and went into the kitchen as she let Mana think her answer over. She started preparing lunch for both of them, turning on the rice cooker and cutting onions and scallions, as well as preparing soup stock, eggs and chicken thigh.

  “Is Oyakodon alright?”

  “Of course, miss Hitoishi.”

  “Seika is fine, too.”

  “I’m more comfortable with Hitoishi right now.” The girl gave an apologetic smile and Seika shrugged.

  After the chicken was cut up and the eggs were cracked into a bowl she dissolved some dashi powder in water, adding soy sauce, sake and sugar before bringing the mixture to a simmer.

  “So, how come, Mana?” She asked while cooking.

  “How do you know the life of a pirate up until that vote?”

  Mana bit her lower lip and took a deep breath.

  “You remember that potion you got from Madame Bille?”

  “Of course. Without it, I wouldn’t be alive, or this happy today.”

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  Seika added some onions to the mix, letting it simmer for a while as Mana continued.

  “I had one of the ingredients used on me…”

  Seika stopped and looked at the young girl.

  “…I’m sorry. That must have been hard.” She sighed and looked back at her cooking, adding chicken thighs before she listened to Mana again.

  “The main ingredient besides Madame Bille’s blood was Amaranth. I was careless and got it blown into my face and saw my past life. Only Madame Bille’s magic pulled me back in control, but I’ve been… changed.”

  “She must have gone to Moneta’s Garden… father is fond of her and gave her nine children, but a Titan is a Titan. Most of them are cruel and convinced of their superiority. This is why we keep her away from the rest of us.”

  Seika pondered Minerva’s words and lowered the temperature of her mixture as the chicken was cooked through.

  “So you were a pirate in your past life?”

  “I was. The vote didn’t go through, and my past self was executed by her crew after trying to ignore it.”

  “Explains why the style appears a bit different afterwards.”

  Seika poured the eggs on top after beating them into a uniform yellow mixture and let them harden in the broth.

  The rice cooker beeped and she scooped up enough for two bowls – then she added the chicken and egg mixture on top before garnishing everything with the scallions and bringing the bowls to the low table.

  “It’s still good, but it will need more work, unlike the beginning. You can write some fiction, but the style should be consistent, yes?”

  Mana nodded and slowly ate, smiling after having her first taste before she answered.

  “…right. I’ll rewrite the rest of it.”

  Seika smiled as the two enjoyed their meal, then she grinned as she put a still quarter-filled bottle of amber liquid on the table.

  “Want to put some garum on it?”

  Mana raised an eyebrow.

  “You still have that?”

  “Of course. I mostly ate convenience store food, not many opportunities to season anything with this.”

  Mana chuckled and shook her head.

  “I’ll have a taste, then.”

  Seika handed over the bottle before she thought of another question.

  “Just out of curiosity… why are you writing? It’s going to be a bit of work to convince the editorial to take on a fourteen-year-old. I think the youngest light novel authors I heard about were around sixteen.”

  She paused for a moment before she added.

  “Besides, you said you wanted to avoid me for the next year or so.”

  Mana stopped and looked out of the living room window.

  “I need money… to buy some presents for someone I care about.”

  Seika raised a brow.

  “If it were just about money, you could surely find an age-appropriate part-time job in a year or so. That’s not the only reason, is it? Oh, speaking of that… we need your parents’ permission to publish this.”

  Mana nodded at the latter part, then she answered Seika’s question.

  “…I want Bonnie’s story to be told. And I want to give it a happy ending.”

  Tears accumulated in her eyes.

  “She was in so much pain. And so sad that she never got to go on an adventure… and when she watched over me as a ghost, she loved me so much… I want to repay her. Somehow.” Mana put down her bowl and tears streamed freely down her face. Ugly sniffles and sobs could be heard, and Seika didn’t hesitate in the slightest.

  She was next to Mana in a second, wrapping her arms around the girl and pulling her into an embrace, stroking her blue hair slowly.

  “You went through a lot, didn’t you? It’s alright. Let it all out.”

  She comforted the strange girl who saved her life as she cried for the next minutes. She owed her that much, minimum.

  Seika entered MagiColle’s offices with the manuscript and a form filled out by Mana. Her mind was set on letting the girl write for the company, as long as she was able to flesh out the adventure parts of her writing a bit more and adjust the style.

  Seika thought back to Mana’s parting words after she comforted her.

  ‘Thank you. You’ll probably be a great mom.’

  She grimaced – she still couldn’t wrap her head around how in the world she could end up being the mother of that strange girl from the future. She wasn’t interested in going through a pregnancy, especially since she was now in a happy relationship with Miori. And the fact that the girl appeared to be a hybrid between a human and Minerva’s race didn’t fill her with confidence either, only with more questions. Would she adopt this child in the future? Was she from Minerva’s home and would run into Seika on her own? Was she going to somehow ‘mate’ with Minerva or Bellona? Or were there darker implications involving other ‘gods’?

  Seika was so occupied with her own thoughts that she almost bumped into Watanabe.

  “Ah! Sorry!”

  He responded with a chuckle.

  “No problem. Let me see what you have there.” He grabbed the envelope out of her hand and read through the form.

  “So young? And you say her pirate story is making the cut?”

  “She has the know-how to portray a pirate captain at the very least, and she writes it competently enough.” Seika confirmed.

  “Hm… very well, then. Oh, by the way, your other author, Kohaku, came by around lunch break and dropped off a bag for you. It’s on your desk.”

  Seika gulped as she heard Ayame’s pen name. “Ah? Nobody looked inside, right?”

  Watanabe raised an eyebrow but answered her, nonetheless. “Of course not.”

  ***

  Seika closed the door to the roof behind her, holding the bag in her arms.

  “Let’s see what you got for me, Ayame…” She said with a little groan.

  She opened the bag and almost closed it again immediately, staring into the sky.

  “Really?”

  “Ahahahahaha, she really wants you to have a good time, Seika! What a friend!”

  Seika let out a long sigh and rummaged through the bag.

  Leather handcuffs with soft insides, lube, a collar with a length of thin chain leash, a strapless strap-on (with a harness added regardless), a familiar bulbously shaped metal utensil with a flared end and various adult toys of the vibrating kind were inside.

  “She’s messing with me. She knows I wouldn’t be able to use all that.”

  Seika wasn’t entirely convinced by her own refusal. She thought back to that festering desire within her, which made her heart feel like it was about to burst out of her chest.

  She shook her head and closed the bag again.

  “Thank you, but no thank you, Ayame.”

  “Uh-oh. Trouble,” Minerva suddenly spoke up.

  Seika blinked and cupped her earring.

  “I’m listening.”

  ***

  The most recent trouble with monsters happened in Shinjuku Gyoen Park. People ran away in a panic, as a giant shade trampled around. It appeared to be a ghost in the shape of a bipedal dinosaur, very similar to the world-famous one peeking its head over the edge of the Toho cinema building in nearby Kabukichō.

  However, it was grey and glitched from time to time, like a corrupted video.

  What set it further apart from its celebrity counterpart was that it had the face of a child, a young boy who laughed in glee as he stomped around.

  The sight was very familiar to Minerva, despite the shade being a wildly different shape and size from the others she saw before.

  “She’s been in hiding for five years and now is when she decides to come back?”

  “Maybe Bellona wounded her more grievously than previously assumed. She was human, after all.”

  Minerva summoned a few large boulders around herself and approached the shade.

  “She should have remained in the shadows, then. I have no idea what she’s doing right now, but I’m going to put an end to it.”

  She pointed her hand forwards, and the rocky projectiles squarely hit the ghost in the face.

  Sorry, kid.

  It let out a loud roar, or a human imitation of such and retaliated. With a thinly concentrated beam of blue fire, almost resembling plasma. It caught Minerva off guard and catapulted her backwards, crashing her into one of the surrounding office buildings, while setting it on fire on top of everything.

  Minerva blinked and coughed as she got on her feet, thoroughly confused. She was in a large open space office, now in disarray with concrete and glass everywhere. Stragglers were hastily evacuating down the stairs after the wake-up call in the shape of a Magical Girl demolishing everything, while fire alarms and sprinklers jumped into action and doused her.

  Minerva sighed, looking at the giant kid in a lizard costume. It wound up for another breath attack, aiming squarely at Minerva, making her hastily fly out of the office and ascending so the kaiju would shoot at her with only the empty sky behind her instead of the cityscape, summoning a barrier to cover her as she approached the threat.

  This time she was prepared; the beam met her barrier and split into innumerable thinner ones which harmlessly shot past Minerva as she got closer and closer, flying straight into the boy’s face. Her magic barrier collided with his nose, which disoriented him visibly, then she followed up with more of her boulders from the left, the right, and the left again in an alternating pattern.

  As she was about to launch the fourth boulder, a blue comet crashed into his cheek from the side, which turned out to be Bellona Azure wielding a large war hammer.

  The boy roared again as he fell to the ground, kicking up a large cloud of dust, and to Minerva’s relief, he wasn’t making actual sounds of a child in pain, reinforcing the fact that they were dealing with a projected apparition.

  Minerva followed up with large icicles, sending them down and impaling the creature, which glitched and disappeared.

  “…that’s one dealt with. Are there others?” Bellona asked, looking around frantically, before the two were interrupted by the nasty sounding laugh of a woman.

  The strange woman in a carnival mask from five years ago descended from the sky, a hand resting on one of the purple bubbles she used to summon unfulfilled dreams.

  “My! This was better than I expected! Thank you for assisting in my test run, but I don’t have a lot of time, so… ta-ta!”

  She popped the bubble with the point of her scythe and the boy whose face was on the large creature fell out of it. Minerva immediately rushed to catch him as the strange villainess simply disappeared through a portal, as she had done the last time. Bellona tried to accost her but was simply too late to do so.

  Minerva placed the boy down in the park and let out a relieved sigh.

  “There you go, you’re safe now. Does anything hurt?”

  The boy shook his head and Minerva smiled, patting his head.

  “Let’s find your parents, then.”

  ***

  This outing took a bit longer than Minerva would have liked, but after a few minutes of looking in the last place the boy remembered being, the Magical Girls reunited him with his mother before they ascended into the sky – speeding towards MagiColle.

  As they arrived above the roof, they remained there for a moment with an awkward silence hanging between them.

  “So about later…” Bellona started.

  “Oh, right! Right… my place or yours?” Minerva replied.

  “Let’s do mine!”

  “Alright!”

  “Here! I had a spare key made for you.”

  Bellona fished a key out of her crystal and tossed it Minerva’s way, who caught it. Minerva grabbed a spare key of her own from her crystal with a little grin.

  “What a coincidence, so did I!”

  The two shared an awkward laugh, then Bellona turned around and flew away, with Minerva watching her with a weird smile on her face.

  “You two are as awkward about your evening plans as a pair of high schoolers…”

  Seika approached the apartment. She brought Miori home from time to time since they became a couple, so she knew the way like the back of her hand by now. It would be the first time she entered the place, though.

  Her heart pounded in her chest as she approached the door, the bag with Ayame’s gifts dangling from her left hand.

  She raised a hand to knock on the door – but she decided against it, taking a deep breath instead and rummaging through her pocket.

  She fished out the spare key to Miori’s apartment and turned it in her hand a few times, admiring it. Such a small thing, but it made things feel real like barely anything else.

  Time to do this.

  She turned the key in the lock; a very girlfriend-like thing to do. To just come to each other’s places without knocking for no other reason than to enjoy each other’s company. Admittedly, today there would be many more things to be enjoyed.

  Seika finally pushed the door open and had a look inside. She immediately closed the door again, turned around and leaned against it, her hand on her pounding heart after she saw something simply overwhelming.

  I need to call Ayame.

  She fished the phone out of her pocket and dialed the number of her best friend’s phone. It rang only once before Ayame picked up. Seika could hear her ear-to-ear grin from her voice alone.

  “Heya, Seika! So, did you do it yet?”

  Seika didn’t answer the question and posed one of her own.

  “Ayame, what am I supposed to do when my girlfriend is waiting for me, naked except for a transparent lace negligee, giving me eyes like she’s about to eat me?”

  “Did you call just to brag?! Go die!”

  There was a long pause. Seika grinned as she correctly guessed that Ayame wouldn’t hang up on her.

  “…give me details.” Ayame asked conspiratorially.

  “As I said… she’s nude except for that negligee… though I think she wore garter and thigh-high socks? Everything on her body right now is see-through, anyway.”

  “Oh my, Seika. She wants you badly. Listen, the last few years I’ve been a regular in various bars in Ni-chōme and had various little… adventures with women, but only a few of them were that enthusiastic about sleeping with me.”

  Seika chuckled and looked at the neon-lit cityscape in front of her.

  “Ni-chōme? Adventures with women? This whole ‘I’m only into boys’ thing really disappeared, didn’t it?”

  Now Ayame was pausing and choosing her words.

  “Seika. The whole ‘I’m only into boys’ thing was a convenient tale to not let us start something that would ruin our friendship.”

  Seika blinked and listened.

  “Why?”

  “I was sexually attracted to you, as I told you in the hospital. But I realized that sleeping with you in our youth would irreversibly change our friendship. Maybe even destroy it if it didn’t work out. So, I masked my own desires behind jokes to not have you catch on. And in the past nine years… well, I didn’t exactly remember why I would deny that I’m into women, so I went and slept with half the girls who frequent the lesbian bars.”

  Seika stared ahead as she listened to Ayame and let out a simple “Wow.”

  “I finally figured out what I want for myself, sexually and emotionally. So, from a certain point of view, losing my memories was a blessing in disguise. Not that I would trade having you back in my life as my friend for anything in the world. And these days I’m confident I could make out with you or Miori, or sleep with you both, without fucking things up, so, going back to your text from this morning: don’t try to coddle me for the sake of my ‘feelings’.”

  Seika let out a long sigh.

  “Do you really believe that?”

  “Of course, Seika. I had a long time to figure myself out. I’m not one for romantic commitment and I enjoy female company. That’s who I am. But…! We are not talking about the theoretical scenario of you two sleeping with me right now. We’re talking about how you’re going to have sex with Miori tonight!”

  Seika let out a snort before she stared at the evening sky with a contemplative expression.

  “…I’m not sure how I’m supposed to approach this.”

  “How do you want to approach this, Seika?”

  Seika closed her eyes. The succubus’ dream came back to her. An illusion to drain her, but every word the creature whispered into her ear was influenced by Seika’s own desires.

  “I want to dominate her. I want to capital-F fuck her. I’ve been denying myself that pleasure for way too long,” Seika finally spoke, taking a deep breath before she slowly let the air out through her mouth. Saying it out loud felt like she lifted a huge weight off her shoulders.

  “But should I really? I was so timid during all these dates we went on. What if I’m not the partner Miori expects?”

  A little whistle came through the phone.

  “Wow, Seika. I knew you wanted Miori bad, but I would have never imagined that you would voice it like that. Did you have an awakening in the past nine years?”

  Seika stared at the ceiling, weighing whether she should tell Ayame or not, and decided to go for it.

  “I was attacked by a succubus when I was at Madame Bille’s place. She, uhm… showed me a dream. A dream in which Miori was tied up and restrained by Minerva. You hugged me from behind and egged me on. And in that moment, I knew that I wanted to dominate her, and that I also feel lust for you and Minerva for that matter. I… don’t know what to make of it. And I’m afraid of acting on it.”

  A little chuckle came out of her phone.

  “…I’m flattered. But trust me, Miori wants the real you. The one who had to restrain herself before she’d devour that cute high schooler at the convenience store. I already guessed you had that side to you back in college, Seika. You have a carnivore’s eyes. You are the type to take charge. Go in there and show those qualities to Miori! Make her fall for you a second time! And for that other part of your dream, I’ll be willing to lend you my ear another time.”

  Seika let Ayame’s words sink in a while longer. She lifted Ayame’s gift bag in her left hand and stared at the lewd items inside as she felt those boiling desires within her again, and realized that keeping them bottled up any longer would not end well for her.

  “Thank you, Ayame,” Seika said and turned to face the door.

  “Go get her, tiger!” Ayame replied before Seika hung up on her.

  Miori leaned against the wall of her entryway, still wearing the negligee. Hitoishi reacted exactly the way she expected, turning red upon seeing Miori in her state of undress and closing the door again, and Miori was almost certain that she was going to take charge tonight.

  In a way, Miori was a little bit disappointed. She always imagined this relationship the other way around, seeing how Minerva Crimson, who saved her life, was a dependable woman of action, always the one taking charge. Seeing her mundane self being so timid was sobering. She hoped that things changed now that Lethe died, and there were hints of it. With Hitoishi acting like the responsible adult of the duo, lecturing Miori when she went too far, especially when she was drunk. She adored those moments and wanted Hitoishi to take charge like that more often.

  In short, mentally she was still the high schooler from the convenience store who wanted the older woman to take care of her.

  She shook those thoughts off as she heard the keys click in the lock once again. It appeared her girlfriend finally found the courage to face her, dressed like this.

  “You promised I’ll have you all night to myself, Senpai… get ready for a – mhhfff?!”

  Miori was rudely interrupted and froze in shock as Hitoishi immediately closed the gap between the two of them and kissed her, aggressively. She felt herself being pushed back towards the bed and a blink later she was on her back, on the mattress, watching Hitoishi eagerly shed her own clothes. She put the bag she carried into the apartment down on the bed, and as it fell over, Miori’s eyes went wide as she saw the contents.

  Huh?

  ***

  The night was long and wild enough that it became a blur. One moment she was on her back, another moment she was kneeling, with her hands tied behind her back with the cuffs Hitoishi brought. In yet another moment, after Miori voiced the request timidly, Hitoishi even turned into Minerva Crimson and took her in that guise as well, shortly before Miori followed with her own transformation. Her girlfriend, who was so timid during all their dates this year, completely took control, or to put it simply, Miori was being utterly dominated, and she loved it. She was moaning in every one of these moments, shouting the name of her lover.

  She gave herself completely over to her girlfriend, embracing the dynamic she herself desired from the beginning.

  ***

  Miori woke up the next morning, staring at the ceiling. The blanket was neatly adjusted to cover her and keep her warm, while the half of the bed which Hitoishi slept in was empty. She heard the sound of rushing water, concluding that her girlfriend was currently showering, washing away any and all traces of the sheer sins she committed last night.

  Miori sat up, with the blanket slipping down a little. As she looked in the mirror, she saw a messy bedhead, which had her blonde hair spread in every direction, and her shoulders and neck were covered in hickeys and bite marks; tangible mementos of last night’s wild ride.

  The water was turned off and a few moments later Hitoishi stepped out of the bath, walking to the kitchen counter where she boiled water. As she noticed that Miori was awake she gave her a gentle smile over her shoulder, starting to pour two cups of coffee.

  “Hey.”

  “Hey.” Miori answered with flushed cheeks.

  She inspected Hitoishi. Currently all she wore was a towel around her nape, which fell over her shoulders to cover her breasts. From Miori’s perspective she could see every single scar on her body. With Seika looking over her shoulder she saw the two scars going over her eye. She could see the small circular scar on her left arm where a police bullet hit her during her childhood, as well as the five on Hitoishi’s right shoulder, showing where Lethe impaled her. Even with all the scars, to Miori’s eyes she was the most beautiful woman in the world.

  “Did you sleep well, Miori? I hope you rested well after… everything.”

  Miori nodded.

  “Yes. Thank you, Senpai.”

  Hitoishi narrowed her eyes in a teasing manner at that.

  “Back to that already? After moaning my name over and over again yesterday?”

  Miori blushed and looked to the side.

  “That was in the passion of the moment!”

  Seika laughed and handed Miori her cup of coffee before she sat down on the edge of the bed.

  “I’d love if you properly called me ‘Seika’ from now on. We are lovers, after all.”

  Miori looked surprised at Hitoishi, no, Seika, and nodded after some deliberation.

  “I will do my best… Sen…Seika.”

  “Very good.” She leaned in to place a kiss on Miori’s cheek.

  Miori now gave her a little smile, then she ran a finger over Seika’s arm.

  “You used all of the toys you had in your bag…”

  “Sure did.”

  “We got our partners involved, too…”

  “Mh-hm.”

  “You’re not the shy woman I’ve known for the past nine years and all the dates. You held back and came out in full force tonight…”

  Seika smiled and put her cup down before she leaned closer to Miori, looking her in the eyes.

  “Do you dislike it?”

  “No! Of course not. It’s in fact… uhm… well, I like to be dominated.” Miori blushed and clutched the blanket a little closer to her chest, all while Seika gave her a warm smile. Then something occurred to her.

  “Oh right, Sen… Seika. We uhm… well, since we involved our partners yesterday when we… transformed… how are we going to deal with that, relationship-wise?”

  “You are our partners. I wouldn’t mind if it was in more than one way.”

  Miori felt the temperature of her face rising after those words from Bellona and Seika seemed to give that question some thought, while also conversing internally with Minerva about it.

  “They’re our girlfriends, too, I guess,” she finally admitted with a little smile. “Consider this: half the times we fell in love it was as our Magical Girl forms. When we were merged with our partners. This has been building up for a long time now, and, uh… Minerva got handsy with me before by controlling my body, so…”

  Miori nodded, and even considered following up with a question about Ayame, but she knew that Seika still carried baggage about the incident with Lethe with her, so she decided not to sour the mood of this wonderful morning. Instead, she leaned in and gave Seika another little kiss on the lips.

  “It feels nice saying your name, Seika… I think I’ll get used to it quickly,” Miori said with a little grin.

  Seika smiled after Miori’s words and the two enjoyed their morning coffee together, before they spent most of the morning making love again. Their time together had only just begun, but they had nine years to catch up on and were dedicated to doing just that.

  https://archiveofourown.org/works/68967756