The bell signaled the end of school for today, and hundreds of girls rose from their seats. Arisu’s much smaller classroom, due to the disappearances caused by the yokai called Okumo, did the same, but the girl didn’t simply wait for everyone to leave in an orderly fashion. As soon as class was dismissed, she hurried out of the classroom and down the hallway, aiming to be the first out the door.

  Today was the day she would finally find out where Mana was going all this time when she wasn’t with her. Did she have a secret girlfriend? An embarrassing hobby? She wanted to know, and today she would catch a glimpse of what Mana was hiding from her.

  She hurried towards the high school’s gate, where her seniors were already pouring out and hid behind a corner, waiting for blue hair and a cat tail to appear. There were a few girls with colored hair leaving the building, with pink, teal and even fiery red hair colors that refused to yield to black and brown hair dye, but it took a while longer before she saw Mana leave.

  She wasn’t alone. Some of her classmates flocked to her, trying to strike up a conversation or even touch her ears or tail, and Mana dodged them all. Arisu’s heart sank a little as she saw that kind of treatment.

  I think she’s taking care of me because she deals with similar issues.

  Still, she kept on following as inconspicuously as she could, sticking to the crowd of high school girls even though she got a few looks from the side as she walked among them in her middle school colors.

  She could see Mana walk a little slower, making excuses to get her classmates out of her hair before she hurried on ahead, sharply turning a corner. Arisu wasted no time following her, quickly pushing through the crowd and poking her head around that same corner. She was just in time to witness a human-sized cat tail vanish behind another corner, and she quickly hurried to follow. As she turned the corner, she saw a blue hole in reality, already shrunk to the size of a dinner plate.

  Arisu quickly ran towards the vanishing portal, making sure to look at the world beyond, and just as she did, her mind was filled with the information she was looking for.

  “Thirram,” she quietly spoke to herself, stopping in the middle of the street as she vocalized what her ability told her. “A technologically heavily advanced world similar to Earth but ruled by a council of technocrats who head various scientific institutions. War for resources has been eliminated through abundance, thanks to advances in the energy sector, and quickly the population was free to pursue the arts or contribute to scientific advancement, without having to worry about shelter, heat or food.”

  “Ohh, what are you mumbling about, cousin?”

  Arisu almost jumped out of her skin and quickly turned around, facing Ami, who stood right next to Arisu and still leaned a bit closer, causing their faces to almost touch.

  “Ah! Ami! Don’t sneak up on me like that, you scared me!” Arisu complained with a pout, and the gyaru laughed, reaching out to pat her head.

  “Oh, don’t be like that, Arisu. I just wanted to see your cute, shocked expression.”

  “You always sound like you’re flirting with me, even though you know that I love Mana,” Arisu complained and looked back to where Mana’s portal used to hover just a moment ago. She could feel the coordinates and instinctually knew how to make use of them with the copied Portal ability. All that was left was for her to commit to her plan, but her heart was hammering in her chest as nervosity took hold of her.

  “Hmm, still hesitating, are you?”

  Arisu could feel Ami’s hand on her shoulder and turned towards her cousin, letting out a long sigh.

  “I think I’m a little scared of what I’ll find.”

  “How about we go get a drink first, so you can calm your nerves, and then we’ll decide on how to proceed, hm? I doubt whatever she’s doing on the other side of that portal will be over in five minutes.”

  Arisu looked at Ami with some doubt, but she nodded.

  “Sure.”

  Month 5, Year 1 of Chief Technocrat Meryl’s Rule

  “It’s not really any of my business, Mana, but you’ve been here a lot recently,” Claudia commented, sipping from a teacup; apparently, she swore off caffeine for the duration of her pregnancy and watched her health more than usual. She didn’t have a baby bump yet, though from what she told Mana before, it would only be one month longer until she would show the first signs.

  “Well… I like spending time with her, that’s all,” Mana deflected, and as Claudia swiveled around on her chair to look at her, she looked at the screens of the observation room to avoid direct eye contact. She could see Marisa from here, leaving school and heading home.

  “You barely came here when she was imprisoned at first. Like, once every two weeks or so. I guess you had a lot on your mind?” she kept inquiring, and Mana nodded, using Claudia’s deduction to wiggle out of any further questioning.

  “Y-yeah. Seriously, Claudia, I’m fine. I just want to see her a lot recently, that’s all.”

  “Hmmm,” Claudia made, not entirely convinced from what Mana could tell, but then she shook her head and faced the monitors again with a sigh. “I think I’m just on edge. Sorry, Mana,” she spoke apologetically.

  “Why? Is something the matter?”

  “Oh, besides my body pumping my brain full of every possible hormone, making me throw up in the morning and crave weird food combinations? Well, one of our sensors in the facility failed this morning, and it will take a little longer until we can get it fixed.”

  “What sensor?”

  “One of the most important ones. The incursion sensor. Beeps whenever a portal to another dimension opens in this facility. It’s usually how I know when you visit.”

  “Wait, isn’t that super important?”

  “And now you know why I’m so stressed! But, enough about that. Go and lock your tome up in the safe, then you can go and spend some time with your girlfriend.”

  Mana nodded, opening the safe and placing Portal inside.

  “See you later, partner.”

  “Of course, Mana,” was the quick affirmation from the tome, then Mana closed the door of the locker and punched in a pin to unlock it later. 0322, the date Mana used Doppelg?nger and summoned Marisa into existence. Her birthday, lacking a real one.

  “Have fun!” Mana could hear Claudia say as she walked through the door leading into the hallways and stairwells that connected to Stevyn’s clinic inside the containment zone. Her lone footsteps echoed through the hallways, which were unnervingly empty as always. She accelerated her steps until she arrived inside the clinic and left it through the front door.

  If one knew how busy a normal day in Tokyo usually was, it would be very unnerving how quiet the city was at this time of day, but the facility’s prisoner had no true experience with what a city was supposed to be like, and thus the odd lack of people was never a problem. The facility made sure to rotate actors in and out as ‘background extras’, like passersby in the streets that were supposed to be a little busier on Marisa’s way to school, and that was it.

  It would have to do. Marisa would sometimes express confusion or suspicion at the state of the city, and it was Stevyn’s job in the role of her therapist to steer her mind in other directions. Mana knew that they were just buying time with this, but she still clung to the notion that somehow, somewhere, she would find a solution to Marisa’s problem that would allow her to save Marisa as well as allow Arisu’s birth, despite them sharing the same soul.

  It was only a short walk before she arrived in front of her ‘home’, letting out a little sigh as she fished out her keys and used them on the lock. To keep the illusion up to the highest detail, she didn’t have a second set of keys for the facility. Rather, the locks were modeled after the keys she already owned. It felt somewhat wrong to unlock this door in another world with her usual house key.

  “I’m home! Mana?” she announced herself, assuming her role. She was Marisa, the clone from another world. The pretend sister of this town’s ‘Mana’, and secretly her girlfriend.

  Even when we’re honest about our feelings, I’m still lying about so many things to her.

  She heard footsteps approaching. Marisa ran down the stairs and grinned, looking at Mana. “Sis!” she exclaimed and ran towards her, immediately holding her in a tight hug. Mana did her best to reciprocate, but her clone’s enthusiasm eclipsed hers thoroughly.

  “Oof! Hey, sis… not so rough, okay?”

  “Hmm, okay…” Marisa said with a little pout, then she pursed her lips. Mana quickly pushed her a little back by her shoulders, making sure to stand in front of her so the cameras wouldn’t catch her face.

  “…not here. I told you, all of that stuff… we can only do that in your room or in the bath, alright?”

  “Boo… alright, sis,” Marisa responded with a little sigh, then she smiled. She suddenly appeared to have an idea.

  “Hey! Want to play some video games together, maybe?”

  “Sure... I’m going to beat you, though!”

  “Pff! You forget, sis: I can do everything you can do!”

  November 2025

  “Feeling a little braver, now?” Ami asked with a little mischievous smile, petting Arisu’s head as she gulped down more of her supposedly ‘intellectual’ drink in front of the vending machine near Inari’s shrine.

  “Yeah…” Arisu admitted sheepishly, and the gyaru grinned her way, wrapping her arms around the younger girl and giving her a little squeeze.

  “Well, then let us depart at once, dear cousin! Let’s find out what dark secrets your beloved Mana is hiding, hm?”

  “I’m sure it’s nothing bad…” Arisu complained, but Ami simply let out a giggle and ruffled Arisu’s hair.

  “I know, I know. Mana wouldn’t do something bad. She doesn’t seem to be that kind of girl. But…! I think we should get going already.”

  “You’re coming with me…?”

  “I’ll be your lookout in case trouble arrives.”

  “…how would…?”

  “You never know with world travel, so stop arguing and bring us to wherever the kitty vanished to, alright?”

  Arisu let out a long sigh, then she pointed her hand at the torii gate. She concentrated on the world she saw beyond Mana’s portal and took a deep breath before she released a copy of the magic, with the world coordinates besides. As the portal opened, she saw a chrome-colored wall on the other side and slowly climbed through the glowing ring that hovered in the air, looking around.

  In front of her, she saw a door. A futuristic one, judging by the chrome surface and the touchpad next to it. Ami left the portal right next to Arisu and stared at the door, slowly walking closer.

  “This will be noisy if we open it the normal way… how about we open a portal to have a look behind that door?” she suggested, turning towards Arisu.

  “Eh? Why?”

  “Just in case someone’s behind there. You wouldn’t want to blow your cover and get discovered by Mana, would you?”

  Arisu pouted, but she quickly nodded and opened a Portal, only about the size of a 500-yen coin. She looked through and raised a brow after seeing what was on the other side. A young woman with long brown hair that was hanging in a braid over her shoulder sat in an office chair, humming to herself as she watched various large screens. From this angle, Arisu couldn’t make out everything on those screens, but what she saw looked like streets of Tokyo to her.

  “…who’s that?” she whispered, and Ami shrugged her shoulders before she responded in a hushed voice.

  “Does it matter? Let’s keep going. There’s a door on the other side of the room, let’s go there next.”

  Arisu narrowed her eyes at Ami but obeyed. The next portal she opened connected the space behind the other door to the door they stood in front of. It was another hallway, entirely unremarkable, but it appeared to be empty. Arisu climbed through the portal and looked back to Ami, but the girl only gave her a little smile.

  “Go on ahead. I’m going to keep my eyes open, so no one surprises you.”

  “But what if there’s people ahead?”

  “I think you’ll manage to deal with it, cousin. Go, now. If you follow that corridor, I’m sure you’ll find Mana in no time.”

  “You sound very certain.”

  “Some things have a way of working out,” Ami reassured her with a little smile. Arisu looked at her a little longer, then she nodded and turned around.

  “Alright… if nothing happens, I’ll come back here and pick you up.”

  “Oh, don’t bother. I know how to phase between worlds on my own,” Ami reassured her.

  “Very convenient,” Arisu grumbled and walked down the corridor, closing the portal behind herself. The chrome hallways and staircases felt oppressive and foreboding, and Arisu brought her whole courage together to keep walking…

  Month 5, Year 1 of Chief Technocrat Meryl’s Rule

  ***

  “Ah, there you are, Filo. I thought you had the day off,” Claudia greeted Amicitia, who gave her a little wave. She stepped closer to the console and had a look at the monitors. Mana and Marisa were sitting in the family house’s living room, playing a video game on the television.

  “I felt like coming in. I’ve grown a little attached to our resident”, she replied. It wasn’t a lie. Not entirely, at the very least.

  “She’s been feeling much better recently. Much less suspicious of her surroundings. I think it has something to do with Mana coming over more often. Maybe we can use that somehow? But we’d need to find a way to remove Doppelg?nger without cutting off the energies that keep her body alive… it’s all very tricky.”

  Amicitia only listened half-heartedly to Claudia. Her eyes were wandering to the magic ring embedded in the console before the screens. Claudia checked the watch on her personal communicator and let out a sigh. “Well, that’s my shift almost done. To be honest I always expected something more exciting from this facility than watching a girl living her fake life. And maybe something less dangerous than the Mimic outbreak we had last year.”

  “Who’s scheduled to take over?” Amicitia inquired.

  “Oh, that would be my future husband,” Claudia answered with a yawn, raising her arms above her head to stretch.

  “That’s the problem with having watch duty here. Sometimes we get separate shifts, and then we won’t see each other the whole day.”

  “I’m sure once this is over, you’ll have plenty of time together. And plenty of time to raise your child, as well,” Amicitia spoke to Claudia, who responded with a grateful smile. Amicitiat’s eyes however were glued to the monitors, all while she inched closer to the embedded ring. She could finally see Arisu leaving the clinic inside the containment zone – and then the image flashed, being replaced with recorded footage to hide the things going on.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Uncle and Fraus are here, working in the background. Please let this be over soon, so I can stop playing their games…

  ***

  Arisu was utterly flabbergasted by what she witnessed here. The corridor first ended in a clinic, like Auntie Sayaka’s, though it contained one device that looked markedly too futuristic. She didn’t stop to ponder what it could be, instead she snuck out of the front door.

  What she saw outside was a perfect replica of the streets of Tokyo, though they were different. Uncanny, even.

  There were not as many people walking the streets as there should be. In fact, there was only one person. An electrician working on a utility pole. He tossed her a short glance, then he went right back to ignoring her presence, continuing his work on the power lines. Arisu walked down the street and turned a corner. There should be cars driving around, but instead the streets were quiet. A woman in a business suit walked past her and raised a brow, turning her way.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Eh?” Arisu wheeled around and faced the woman.

  “Tsk… did they get new amateurs again? You’re a schoolgirl. What are you doing near the subject’s house, then? You’re supposed to make her school and way home a little livelier, just the way it should be. Did you go outside and have a smoke break the very moment you were supposed to do your job?”

  “Uhm, I…”

  “Ah, don’t even bother. She’s at home right now with the other one, so we’re off the clock. I’m going to the dorms. If you’re really a newbie come and drop by, I’ll show you the ropes.”

  Arisu nodded, and the scary-looking woman gave her a little smile before she turned around and walked away. As she passed the utility pole she shouted something up towards the electrician, but Arisu was too far away to make it out. Arisu kept going, taking in the strange sights. Come to think of it, there were no tall buildings the way she came from, yet she had to descend multiple flights of stairs to end up in the clinic. It didn’t make sense, and it made Arisu’s head hurt a little to think about it.

  She quickly made her way down the street, turning corners, forced by conspicuous construction sites and other obstacles that stopped her from taking any other path. After a while she recognized where she was.

  Isn’t this the shopping street where Mana lives?

  She walked through the street and even saw a running TV in one of the shop’s windows. She stepped closer and noticed that it was yesterday’s program, which ran here for whatever reason.

  “That’s weird…” she mumbled, then she approached the store next door. ‘Kanno Tailoring’, she saw written in big, familiar letters. She accompanied Mana home a few times, but never inside. Her heart hammered in her chest as she reached for the door and opened it. Despite it being unlocked, the business space was vacant. Dresses and sewing supplies greeted Arisu as she walked past mannequins, and the only light inside came from behind a door in the corridor behind the counter which led to the kitchen space at the back of the house and a staircase going upstairs. The stairs to reach the second floor, the living space, she realized.

  She heard voices from behind the door and above. Mana’s voice, and someone else’s. Was it someone else? After she spent some time simply listening to the muffled voices, it was like Mana was talking to herself, as impossible as it seemed to be, with talking, cheering and laughter of two people intermingling.

  She opened the door and quietly walked upstairs, and she could hear a little clearer as she got closer to the living room.

  “Ugh! That was a cheap shot, sis! Stop spamming projectiles!”

  “Hahaha, well, if you can’t deal with that, what makes you think you can beat me up close?”

  “I’m going to get you! Take this! And this!”

  “Oh! Who’s spamming now?”

  Arisu didn’t understand. Mana had a sister? And she was here, in this weird place that looked like Tokyo, instead of back home, where a sister should live with her? She had to get a look at her. She needed to know. She took the last few steps of the stairs quickly and inevitably made a noise, and as she stood at the top, looking towards the living room space, with the couch and the TV with the gaming console, where Mana sat, she finally saw her.

  It was Mana, but with fiery red hair, slightly tanned skin, and silver eyes that quickly made contact with Arisu’s human eye.

  “Who are you?”, the girl who looked like Mana asked.

  “What the hell are you doing here?!” the real Mana shouted, panicked, but Arisu was suddenly overwhelmed by a headache.

  Fragments of a whole life played in front of her mind’s eye. First, she was in a dark space but surrounded by incredible, loving warmth. She shared this warmth with someone, but soon after she had to leave this dark, comfortable place and float around aimlessly. Soon after, she emerged fully formed out of a book in a strange library, right in front of Mana.

  More flashes. She saw herself fighting with Mana, then she shared a kiss with her. Then there were more intimate moments, which felt like they were ripped straight from Arisu’s deepest desires themselves. She wanted to look away and hide her face, but she couldn’t feel her own body, nor control it. The visions continued, fragmented and inscrutable. Kissing, fighting, intimacy, fighting, imprisonment, more intimacy, and, finally, this moment.

  Arisu was ripped out of the strange visions, taking a deep breath as she looked at the girl in front of her. She held her head as it ached suddenly, and the girl who looked like Mana but wasn’t repeated the gesture. Mana was kneeling by her side, trying to reach her with her voice.

  “No! Please just ignore that, sis. That was just one of your episodes. Should we go to Doctor Grendel and get it fixed?”

  Mana was suddenly flung away from the redhead by an invisible force and crashed into the nearby wall with a yelp. The redhead held a hand over her eye, staring daggers at Arisu with the other. Tears were flowing down her face, and her mouth moved, as if she was internally fighting with herself what she wanted to say.

  “…on’twanttodie.”

  “Wh... what was that?” Arisu asked quietly, stepping a little closer. In that moment, she was caught by a blast as well, just like Mana before. She hit her back against the railing of the staircase and let out a pained yelp as the redheaded girl held her head and screamed.

  It was a piercing, panicking scream, as if she was a cornered animal confronted by a predator, by inescapable death.

  “I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!! I don’t want to die!!!”

  The redhead’s eyes darted around the room like she was looking for an escape route while her hand slowly pointed at her own head.

  “No! No, Marisa, don’t…!” Arisu could hear Mana shout, but it was too late.

  “Break Spell!”

  “What are your plans for the child, Claudia?”

  Amicitia had kept Claudia busy with idle small talk. Distracting her enough to not notice the changed timestamps on the footage, while not distracting her enough to make her question whether she was doing her job correctly. She could feel bile rise at the back of her throat. She was sick of it all. The lying, the deception, the plan that would see everyone she forged a bond with over the past months hurt. Maybe even Claudia would get hurt, or her baby.

  Amicitia wanted to weep and scream and thrash, and tell Claudia the truth, but the suffocating presence of her uncle nearby kept her quiet, and she played her role to perfection.

  “Really, I’m not sure if I’m even ready to be a mother. With a job like this? It’s not like I need it to get by, of course, but I’m passionate about all these other worlds out there, and the objects, creatures and people who end up here… I hope I can somehow achieve a good balance.”

  “I’m sure you’ll manage. It may not have been planned, but you’ll be the best mother possible. I’m sure of that.”

  Just as Amicitia said those words, they felt a shock going through the observation room. Little ripples spread over the surface of Claudia’s tea.

  “That’s odd,” the scientist commented, looking around.

  “I’m not aware of any construction work for adjacent facilities… it’s…” She blinked as she saw various lights on the console light up in red, indicating that cameras were offline – and yet, those same cameras were displaying peaceful footage on the screens.

  “…what’s this?” she asked quietly, then she jumped up and slammed her hands on the console, looking around.

  “…all of these timestamps are from two days ago!”

  Amicitia watched as Claudia frantically operated the controls, restarting the cameras with an override command. She kept her hands behind her back, getting closer to the socket housing the magic ring housing the spell that could reset the facility.

  “There we are… what… what in the…”

  Claudia stared at the screens. All the cameras inside the Kanno household were destroyed and showed only static, and the nearest one showed a smoldering ruin where the shop and residential house combination stood before. Marisa floated in the air, surrounded by spell books that appeared one by one and rotated around her body. She summoned fireballs into her hands, flinging them towards Mana and Arisu. Arisu deflected the projectiles and erected a protective barrier around Mana, who was helpless without her Portal tome, which she utilized to access her other tomes these days.

  “Shit! I’ll have to wipe the memory of everyone in the facility, and then…” Claudia froze as nothing happened after she hit the emergency button on the console. She quickly checked the socket for the magic ring and the color drained from her face as she saw it empty. She turned towards Amicitia, who was already walking backwards out of the room, with tears streaming down her face.

  It hurts so much to betray them… why, uncle? Why are you making me do this?

  “Claudia, I’m so…”

  “You… Filo, don’t tell me this is your doing…?”

  Claudia looked completely betrayed. Signs of anger flashed on her face, but she was hurt and confused more than anything else from what Filo could tell. She hurried to the locker, which Filo knew contained a gun that was to be used in case of incursions. She quickly opened it and pointed the weapon at Amicitia.

  “Give it back, Filo! I’m only warning you once!”

  “I’m sorry, Claudia, believe me. I’m being forced to do this…”

  “Stop right there, damn you!”

  “Mana’s code is 0322. Please go and help her.”

  “What do you mean by-”

  Claudia couldn’t finish her question. Amicitia heard a shot go off and hit the wall, followed by the woman’s cursing as she ran down the corridor. She ran and ran, until she met up with her uncle, wearing the guise of a scientist. He looked a little more healthy than last time, but the damage done to him by Jove and Briareus was still overtly visible.

  He held out his hand without a word, and Amicitia placed the ring inside with a shaky hand.

  “Good. With that, I don’t need you anymore, niece. You’re free to do as you please again,” he spoke coldly, stowing the ring before he turned into a liquid mass of shadow.

  “I will go and fetch our newest… ’friend’.”

  Arisu did her best to keep Mana safe as the redhead fired spell upon spell at the two. Fireballs and shockwaves struck them, with Arisu using her magic energies to deflect the blasts away from Mana, who for some reason didn’t have her books with her.

  She wanted to apologize. Whatever just happened, it must have surely been her fault, and now she had to clean everything up.

  “Oh, mistress! Naughty mistress! Locking me up in a gilded cage! Stealing my memories! I will have my revenge for it! I will, I will!” the redheaded girl shouted, flinging another fiery spell the pair’s way. Arisu parried the attacks, while Mana sat there, looking like she was paralyzed.

  “Why are you doing this? Weren’t you getting along earlier?” Arisu shouted, and the redhead only laughed.

  “Why? Because you need to die, Arisu! I can’t have this body and soul perish! I need you gone!”

  Arisu didn’t know what this girl was talking about, and at that moment, she didn’t care to find out, either. She stood in front of Mana, taking the brunt of the spells, utilizing the defenses Hachiman showed her and simply held out.

  “Marisa…” Mana finally spoke, standing up on her feet. “Stop this…! Please! Stop this!”

  “Marisa isn’t here, mistress! She has discovered her fear of death anew, and I shall protect her, until we can finally merge!”

  “Damn it all…!” Mana shouted, and as Arisu glanced over her shoulder, she could see her crying. The cat-eared witch raised a hand to point it at Marisa and let loose an arrow, which the red-haired clone deflected with a mad laugh.

  “There it is! There it is!! Mistress would rather kill me, kill her beloved Marisa for the sake of that other girl! I will make sure that she sees! I will make sure that she knows! You cannot hide your true feelings from her any longer, mistress!”

  Arisu couldn’t make any sense out of what was coming out of Marisa’s mouth. She stood there, uncertain whether she should attack this girl or stand back and leave it to Mana.

  “Mana! Catch!”

  This voice was a new one that Arisu didn’t recognize. She turned her head and saw the woman with the braided hair tossing a spell book towards Mana, who appeared to snap out of her daze to catch it.

  “What are you doing here?! Think of your baby!”

  “I couldn’t just leave you like this!” the woman shouted, aiming a pistol at Marisa. Mana immediately sprang into action, erecting a barrier in front of the scientist before she could get skewered by multiple magic arrows.

  “Get out of here, now!” Mana shouted and the woman nodded, turning around to sprint back in the direction of the clinic. As she ran multiple steps, she suddenly stopped, looking surprised as a large man came from the opposite direction, immediately embracing her and speaking quietly to her, gesturing down the street. She nodded and ran, then the large man approached the fight between Mana, Arisu and Marisa.

  “Doppelg?nger! Stop this right now! I’ve already sounded the alarm when I came in, and in a few minutes, you’ll be surrounded! Just go back to being a schoolgirl and you won’t get harmed!”

  Marisa paid him little mind. She gestured in the air, and a summoning circle appeared on the ground from which a Minotaur appeared. Mana cursed quietly, extending her hand and shouting ‘Paralyze’, but just as she did so, Marisa erected a barrier right in front of herself, which appeared to be enough to block the spell.

  “You’re rusty, mistress. You haven’t regularly practiced magic in a year; you can’t invocate without words… I don’t think you’ll ever get the upper hand over me like that!”

  Arisu rushed forward, catching a spear thrust from the Minotaur and deflecting it to the side with her energy blade before she struck at it, felling it with a quick stab to the heart.

  “You two together, however, might be a problem,” Marisa admitted and immediately fired a barrage of fiery arrows at Arisu. She could barely summon her energies in time and was quickly engulfed in a fiery inferno.

  As the flames died down, she saw Mana right in front of Marisa, and the two were locked in a struggle as the blue-haired witch grabbed the redhead’s wrists.

  “Stop it already, Marisa!” Mana shouted, but the clone didn’t listen. She grinned and headbutted Mana, making her stumble backwards, then she extended her hand.

  “Blast.”

  Mana was violently flung away from Marisa, who immediately started running. The blue-haired witch hit the wall of a nearby building and let out a scream before she crumpled together. Arisu was frozen in place, torn between stopping this clone, or assisting Mana. She chose the latter, hurrying to the witch’s side. Mana held her flank and grimaced, trying to get up, but still, as Arisu tried to pull her on her legs, she brushed her hand off, protesting with a “Don’t touch me!”

  Marisa in the meantime stopped in front of the large man who pointed both a pistol and a strange device at her, the latter of which appeared to cause her discomfort. She stumbled backwards and held her head.

  “What sorcery is this? I can’t… my head… I can’t use…”

  “All those doctor visits weren’t for nothing, Doppelg?nger! We know how to shut down your magic if necessary! Now stand down!” he shouted her way, and for a moment it looked like the clone might give in and follow his orders.

  “I’m so sorry girl… I wish we could have helped you faster instead of just finding ways to keep you contained. I wish we could have…”

  There was a shout from behind the large man – it belonged to the woman who was there earlier. He turned around, finding out too late that it was a warning as a creature made from shadow sank its teeth into the arm holding the strange device that kept Marisa pacified. The large man let out a loud scream as the creature bit down harder and harder while he kept pulling to free himself, until he suddenly stumbled backwards, with his left arm having been reduced to a short stump below the shoulder.

  The color drained incredibly fast from his face as the woman from earlier ran to his side screaming what Arisu assumed to be his name and did her best to try and tie the stump off, with tears streaming down her face, all while the shadowy creature crept closer.

  There was no comparison to any existing animal in Arisu’s mind for this thing, no matter if mundane or mythological. It was a formless shape with large, malicious eyes and sharp teeth, though it still felt familiar somehow.

  Uncle Scotus.

  Arisu didn’t think twice about what she would do. This creature wanted her dead and wouldn’t stop at anything or anyone to achieve that goal. She grabbed Mana by the collar and catapulted herself towards the creature, while the witch let out a surprised shout, then she placed Mana next to the tall man.

  “Help him! I’ll deal with this thing!”

  Mana quickly scrambled towards the tall man, looking just as pale as he was as she pointed her palms at his bleeding stump. The bleeding stopped and a bead of sweat formed on her forehead as she kept focusing on her magic, while Arisu turned around to face the giant mass of shadow. Its cruel eyes focused on her with its maw closed, making it look like just a giant blob of dark matter with a mean stare.

  He looks wounded. If I fight him now, I might end this once and for all…!

  Arisu summoned her bow into her hand, drawing it and aiming a magic arrow at Scotus.

  “I don’t know why you’re haunting me like this, uncle! Just leave me alone!” she pleaded with him, though she got no answer. The air between them was charged with uncertainty, and just as Arisu wanted to loose her arrow to drive him away, she was hit by a spell from the side. She stumbled, realizing that it was Blast, shot from Marisa.

  Her uncle, curiously enough, didn’t take this opportunity to attack her. He instead turned towards Marisa, whose eyes went wide as the mass of shadow approached her and scooped her up from the ground. She vanished from sight, and Scotus slithered away incredibly fast, roaring as Arisu shot her arrows after him and hit him on his way out.

  With that, an uncomfortable silence fell on the fake city, with the large man’s pained groans and heavy breathing mixing with the woman’s quiet sobbing.

  ***

  “And this is exactly why I had my doubts about further cooperation with you, ‘Witch Queen’.”

  It only took five more minutes for help to arrive. Men in breathing masks, wearing body armor and brandishing automatic rifles stormed the false Tokyo, securing the corners, and guiding medical personnel to the wounded scientist. Mana was finally able to let go of whatever spell she had used to stop the bleeding, and a strange azure slime was generously applied to the bleeding stump of the researcher’s arm. Arisu could watch in real time how vessels closed and scar tissue covered the previously exposed flesh, while a blood transfusion returned color to the man’s face.

  Among them was a woman wearing glasses, dressed in a ceremonial navy-blue uniform with a golden sash, who immediately approached Mana and greeted her with those chastising words.

  “Is Stevyn going to be alright?” Mana asked, with her voice barely audible. She looked at the ground, rather than facing the stern woman directly.

  “He’s stable. He will get a top-of-the-line replacement for the lost limb, straight from our leading bionics facility. We owe him that much. That said…”

  The woman leaned down, grabbing Mana’s jaw and forcing her to look her in the eyes.

  “All of this is your fault! Yours and that Arisu’s over there! I know what you did… you convinced Stevyn to keep certain areas of her home unsupervised, to give her ‘privacy’. But all that ‘privacy’ was just for your benefit, wasn’t it? All so you can have your disgusting pseudo-incestual fun, the unstable state of her memories be damned.”

  “I…” Mana whimpered but didn’t get to speak.

  “I don’t want to hear it! You are hereby banished from our world, Witch Queen! You have my gratitude for keeping Stevyn alive until we arrived, so you and your friend may leave unmolested, but the next time you come here, I will have you made the subject of our research, mark my words!”

  With that, the woman let go of Mana and turned around to tend to the two scientists and issue more orders. Mana fell to her knees and stared at the ground, and Arisu could see the wet stains of tears appearing on the road. She quickly approached Mana, reaching out to touch her shoulder. She didn’t know how she could comfort her, but she wanted to try. She wanted to be there for her friend. However, just as she almost touched Mana, her friend’s head snapped around to face her. The teary face that Arisu looked at was a grotesque mix of anguish and anger – and right now the latter was exclusively aimed at her.

  “Don’t touch me! And don’t ever talk to me again!”

  November 2025

  It had started to rain since she left with Arisu for that other world.

  How fitting.

  Amicitia kneeled in a Tokyo alleyway, retching and vomiting as everything she did finally caught up with her, mentally.

  I brought people together, only to inflict tragedy on them.

  I brought forth the conception of a child, which will be born of deception.

  I made a young girl realize her love for another, only to destroy their mutual trust.

  And what did she do all of this for? To further her uncle’s grand plan, which would first see this innocent young girl cease to exist, and to what end? He always went on about Grandmother Chaos, how everyone would see her again, be one with her, but she had no idea how he meant to achieve that.

  “I never wanted to be a part of this,” she whispered to herself as tears streamed down her face. “I don’t… I don’t want anything to do with this. I don’t want to be there to see the results of his ‘grand plan’.”

  She could feel her body already protesting against her continued existence. She had been too long in worlds with next to no Deogemma magic, and she was about to turn back into her true form.

  Let it happen, then. Let me be swept away in this world. I deserve nothing less.

  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as her skin crystallized and she soon shattered and disintegrated, leaving only her true, triangular crystal behind on the ground.

  I should stop thinking. I am nothing but a rock, now.

  Just as she was content with drifting away into an endless sleep, she felt someone picking her up.

  “My, there you are,” a kindly voice spoke. She felt fingers brushing the dirt off her surface, and the warm embrace of a human’s palm underneath herself.

  “Leave me on the ground. Leave me to die,” she communicated to the stranger holding her.

  “I can’t do that, Amicitia. You still have a role to play, and a debt to repay. You long for absolution, don’t you? And I am here to give you an opportunity to make everything right.”

  Amicitia wanted to protest further. She brought her senses back to have a look at the stranger holding her and was met with a familiar face.

  “You are…!”