A Fate OC's adventures in Kivotos! A Student's life of Guns, Charm, and Zeal!
Tags: Mob appreciation, The JTF mobs are free, You can take them home, I have a whole squad living with me right now.
Co-Authored with KillerQueen. Beta'd by Boozeshlager aka ChefRustyDick
Chapter 1: Demons are a girl's best friend
Greetings, student. We regret to inform you that, during the recent group study project, your body was rendered unto a state in which you are no longer capable of taking classes in this Worldline.
Our investigation into the matter has led us to conclude that the on site faculty's negligence was the primary cause for the accident. This, combined with the binding nature of the agreement permitting your study at Clock Tower, has led us to our current course of action.
We have gathered as much of 'you' as we could, created a body native to the primary Worldline you have been entangled in, and arranged for your transfer to an affiliated Academy therein. As per your arrangements with Clock Tower, your housing and tuition at Trinity General Academy are fully paid through graduation. In addition, your Clock Tower credits will be counted towards your Trinity education.
While we were able to gather 95% of your existence into this crafted body, the remaining 5% was lost beyond recovery. As such, your memories of life before your arrival in your new Worldline may be incomplete. However, since you will be entirely unable to return to your previous Worldline, this should pose you little difficulty moving forward. We hope that you find prosperity in your new life and your new home.
Signed, Daybit Sem Void.
A blank, unfinished outline, sitting in a white, unfinished void, reads a letter. "Created a body," huh? Well, it certainly doesn't seem finished. But maybe that's on purpose? One's self image tends to affect these things.
"Who was I…?" She– ah, there's a bit of self trickling in. She's a she. She doesn't feel terribly attached to the designation, but she thinks she likes girls, so being one would be a win-win. As she comes to this understanding, her outline slowly takes on a feminine shape.
A memory trickles in, a stuffy classroom, her lips quirking wryly as she introduces herself to a fellow magus, the name tasting like a joke on her tongue. Kaika Fukajo. Blooming deep, dark affection.
Like a pulled string, more comes as she tugs. She's a magus, but only in the barest sense. A first generation magus, for one. Taken under someone's wing, someone she can't recall… not important.
For another, she's devoted herself to curses. Ideation, thoughts and feelings, grown so powerful they warp reality. They don't care for Thaumaturgical Foundations or Magic Circuits and in fact even the most mundane person can bring them into being with powerful enough feelings. Her only true magecraft is a set of tongs to handle this ideation, refine it under controlled conditions, give it purpose, because… because…
As Kaika remembers her magecraft, she can feel prana coursing through her Magic Circuits as they take form, running down her spine and limbs. The familiar sensation brings with it a surge of more memories.
…Because wild curses are unpredictable things, the monstrous older brother of actions taken in the heat of the moment. More than that, curses can take life to fulfill their purpose. Demons. Irrational creatures that perceive reality through a tinted, warped lens. Ethereal unless (until) they possess something or some
one.
But should someone have strong mental discipline, shape their thoughts with Self-Hypnosis, an artificial demon can be created. Something that can be trusted with tasks more complex than sowing chaos.
There's more. Memories of a long haired man, the scent of soldering, gemstone chips and feather threads mingling with complex circuitry. A laptop and a smartphone, set to draw in and filter ideation. A demon, iterated for generations with a twin, to help shape and process it. The perfect glassware for the labwork that is demonology.
Kaika's body is almost finished. She's a schoolgirl in her mid to late teens. Her hair is short and purple. Her clothes are starting to form, along with her tools and talismans.
There's something missing, she remembers seeing demons outside digital containers and false-flesh made from ether clumps. How–
A cacophony of disjointed snippets. Ghostwriting homework late at night, gingerly testing an experimental mystic code, a towering stack of theses needing proofreading and peer-reviewing. Bitterness weighing down her shoulders and tongue, that her projects are being neglected, all to rack up enough favors to… to…
The moon, burning into her eyes, engraving glowing rings around her pupil. Lunatic Eyes, low grade Mystic Eyes capable of seeing ethereal entities if not forces such as mana or ideation themselves. Attainable through a complex (expensive) ritual. Indispensable for a demonologist.
The bitterness returns and with it a memory. A shove, such a simple thing, completely unexpected among magi. Straight into an anomaly. Only enough time to look over her shoulder and see a sneering face.
Tria Nuado Solmand.
She didn't even get to sic a dying curse on the bitch.
That's… that's enough reminiscing about school. Yes.
She… Kaika looks at
herself. Her outline has filled. Her body is defined. Her face and hands are complete. Her Mystic Eyes are intact. All twenty of her Magic Circuits are there, just as freakishly long as always, completely intact. And her…
halo? It's an odd thing, four chambers clenching and expanding in a complex dance to the tune of her heart.
As she considers her Halo, new feelings wash over Kaika. She had been partially entangled in a new Worldline, and this new body was made from that Worldline's material. She is now a native of this place. Her Origin is still Aním, she wouldn't be the same person if it wasn't, but it now expresses itself as a Mystic…whatever that means.
Kaika shakes her head, putting the thought aside for later. It's probably just some dimensional flotsam that got caught in. She'll have Sultore and Paimon give her a deep scan later.
As she looks at her surroundings once again, she sees that she is no longer naked in a blank void. Instead, she is sitting in a train car, wearing an unfamiliar school uniform. A sailor uniform…a knapsack…
A bolt of terror strikes through Kaika's heart for a moment. Her babies! Paimon, Sultore, Bosse! Did they get pulled apart with her too!? Were they left behind to either die by inches from a lack of ideation or get dissected by her colleagues!?
Her hand jumps to her neck, patting frantically. The old cord is still there, and so's Sultore's brooch. A core where the floating eyeball can sleep while not at work as her sensor suite. Petrichor fills her nostrils and the brooch radiates warmth. He's fine.
Next her hand drifts to the custom holster on her belt. Ozone and a digital eye peering at her from a smartphone screen, her lab assistant chirping out a greeting. Paimon is fine.
The brass bracelet is still there. She smells burning lilies, ethereal green fire trickling from the stud of bone that the shotgun shaped demon sleeps in as her grumpiest child, Bosse, reassures her he's fine.
She slumps bonelessly on her seat. She isn't alone.
She isn't alone.
As the panic gives way to bone deep relief, Kaika can't help but start giggling, somewhat hysterically. She's… free now, isn't she? She has a new life, in a new body, and her friends are here, too! And she's in a new Worldline…what's it like? What kinds of sights and smells and flavors are there to experience?
She jumps to her feet, jitters too much to stay seated. The train is empty! Which normally would be deeply unsettling, but here and now it means she can run and scream as she pleases to let off energy. Frankly, the only reason she isn't making wild curses is her Keys (a grandiose name for her laptop and phone) greedily sucking up everything she emits.
With little warning, the screech of metal on metal sounds forth as the train decelerates rapidly. Kaika, having been running around the train car at the time, gets flung unceremoniously by cruel physics. She rolls ass over teakettle before coming to rest with her face on the floor and her bottom in the air.
It's a minor miracle she hasn't broken her nose. Actually, the only scrapes and bruises are on her pride.
"Attention, passengers. Communication with Sanctum Tower is lost. Until communication is restored, all public works are on standby. You may choose to remain on the train, or to disembark here. Highlander Railway Academy thanks you for your patience and understanding." Comes the PA after a moment.
"Wait, what? The whole city freezes if comms go down?" The magus asks, completely jarred out of her good mood by sheer confusion. Christ, that's a worse system than the CCT. Thankfully, it doesn't last. Because she runs a Structural Analysis on herself and has to laugh at what it reports. This body is SHOCKINGLY durable.
Looks like she won't have to bother Reinforcing herself anymore, beyond maybe her sensory organs and nerves. It's actually a blessing in disguise that the train's stopped, it means she can go on a run.
As Kaika makes a hasty exit from the train, she is stopped by a
cute girl with a generic looking halo reminiscent of a scope and a handgun strapped under her arm. "Excuse me, miss! Are you sure you want to leave the train right now? Let's see…according to the register…you were disembarking at Trinity, right? That's a good distance away from here, and it looks like there's a lot of hoodlums causing trouble out there…"
These halos… is the supernatural an open secret here? At least they'd have a higher tolerance for the strange. Well, it isn't like she can't erase this girl's memories if she's wrong, so!
The eye slams open, the pupil contracts.
Fire races down her arm, five angular lines of turquoise tracing out the limb all the way to her fingertips. Power flows, and one of the studs on the brass bracelet on her wrist pops in a deluge of blue sludge, whirling around the carved fingerbone. Like a vacuum bag pulling taut, it contracts, leaving a sleek lever action shotgun sitting so comfortably in her hand she may as well have been born with him.
A flare of ghostly green fire, and the remaining layer of goop burns away like so much paper, revealing lovingly burnished brass and intricate reliefs glowing with an inner light. Spider lilies still in their bud, set against a snowscape.
…But, he used to be a deeper green? The ghostly, foglike wisps he's giving off are new, too. The effect almost looks like neon, or blacklight. It looks great, don't get her wrong, but–
Mimesises. Creatures of Terror, the other side of the Mystic. Beings of Emotion. Differences from demons…negligible to nonexistent. The same feeling that Kaika experienced when she considered her halo washes over her again, bringing with it new whispers.
Apparently it wasn't just a bit of flotsam. Ah, well, at least it's helping for now and none of her demons are screaming, especially Sultore, so it should be fine to wait until she's at the dorms.
For now, she pushes the thoughts aside, clears her throat and poses with her dear child.
"That's what I got Bosse here for!" Kaika says with a beaming grin even as she silently gauges the young woman's reaction.
The girl blinks, cocks her head to the side in mild confusion, and looks at her clipboard again. "Trinity…? Not Gehenna, or Hyakkiyako? Huh. The administrators must be taking the upcoming Eden Treaty more seriously than I thought."
Score!
She nods, puts the clipboard away, and gives the student an equally beaming customer service smile. "Well, if you're sure, then let me give you a map with directions to your destination! We at Highlander Railway Academy would like to welcome you to the Academy City of Kivotos! We wish you a safe journey, and hope you ride with us again!"
…It makes her feel slightly slimy to be on the receiving end of that. Even if she did harvest a bunch of retail workers for Bosse's ideation. Still, her good mood carries the day, making sure her smile remains on and very much genuine, "Thanks, otherwise I'd have had to beat some directions out of the delinquents."
Or climb to a rooftop to look around with Sultore. There is no way in hell a school named
Trinity doesn't have a cathedral of some sort, and those stick out like a sore thumb.
With a grin and a wave, the magus snatches the offered map from the Railway Academy student's hand (with a free Structural Analysis of the woman when their fingers brush. Yep, just as durable, as she thought) and starts to run; away from the train, over the kiosk, and into the bright, sunny streets of a gorgeous city of bright whites and pale blues. There are halos everywhere. In the sky, on some of the buildings, and hovering over the slowly drifting zeppelins high above. Though not everything is bright and clean. The sounds of angry shouts and the staccato rhythm of gunfire echoes in the distance, and the smell of smoke and gunpowder taints the otherwise clean, fresh air.
Between the amazing sights all around her, the potential for danger around every corner, and the fact that she really needs to look over her map and brochure, Kaika quickly finds her attention split in multiple directions.
Reading the map tells her a great many things. Firstly, the distance she will have to walk from the city outskirts to the Trinity District is significant. Thirty minute bus ride significant. Ah, well, it just means she'll get a full body workout!
Secondly, the Academy City of Kivotos is BIG. Exact distances are hard to gauge in her distracted state, but it is at the very least big enough for one district near the outskirts to be facing destruction through desertification, another district to be built on an active Volcano, and the largest of the districts to be dominated by endless winter. Both her own district and the volcano…hey, that's Gehenna! The Trinity and Gehenna districts share the majority of the beach, nice!
The brochure helps to contextualize the information. While this "Red Winter" place had the most land, the most prestigious and powerful schools were a place called Millennium Science Academy, Gehenna, and her very own Trinity! And…oh. The term "demon" is in use here, as a primary person demographic studying at Gehenna. A quick glance at her Student ID tells Kaika that her own race is on the ledger as "Magus."
Guess she'll be calling her own demons "Mimesises" from now on? It sounds
exactly like what magi would call them if given half a chance. Alas, her poor children, fallen prey to pompous language.
Still! Back on track! She sets Sultore loose to start scouting. A single eyeball encased in a globe of red 'flesh' drifts out of her brooch, trailing six tentacles that fade into yellow. Even if a delinquent has the right eyes to see him AND the consecrated ammo to do anything, he is still a target the size of a tennis ball a mile up in the air.
Kaika notices the same glow and wisps coming from Sultore as are coming from Bosse, but at this point she's expecting it. If her children are here with her, then they're made of this Worldline's materials now, too. She's just thankful that they're okay, and still work the same as before.
Sultore chimes in an instant, immediately spotting a group of potential hostiles about three blocks away. The five haloed high school girls are dressed in old fashioned japanese delinquent outfits. The styles are varied, but on closer inspection, there are common trends around weapon types. The two girls using SMGs have short skirts and ponytails, the lone rifle woman has a shorter haircut and long skirt, and the two blondes with machine guns are wearing pants and sarashi.
The group of Sukeban are on light alert, thoroughly distracted by the collection of purses they are rummaging through.
Kaika, for her own part, is
very pleased with the answer to 'can I wall jump?'. It is exhilarating to pinball between buildings until she's at the roof, at which time it is child's play to hop around until she's got a delicious ambush set up.
Now, she just needs a minute to cook up something fun.
"Yahoo~ I'm here to rob you!" She chirrups as her feet slam into a machinegun wielder's head like a runaway train courtesy of a subtle curse to do with density. Her answer to people thinking they can push her around just because she's small and cute. Red and white marbles, easily overlooked, fall from Kaika's sleeves as she goes.
Momentum carries the pair into a nearby wall, Kaika's feet embedding the blonde's head a centimeter into the brickwork. The Sukeban is bruised, and knocked out cold.
That would've pulped a normal human's head four times over. She loves this world!
"What the - YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT, PUNK!" The thugs shake off their confusion with a cliche line, and immediately scramble into better positions. The two SMG users open fire on Kaika immediately, giving the rifle woman and the remaining MG user a chance to move into better engagement ranges.
"Showtime!" She calls as she jumps away from her first victim, dodging most of the bullets and shrugging off the rest. With a snap and a flash, the marbles at their feet erupt into pillars of bone and lashing masses of flayed muscle just as she programmed them, tripping the delinquents and forming a dome around them.
Fun fact, Lunatic Eyes, due to their connection with the night, confer
exceptional low light vision. The tiny trickle of light making it through the small airhole at the top is more than enough for her to nail the remaining MG between the eyes with a bolt of green-edged black courtesy of Bosse.
After that it's a complete joke. She doesn't even need to make her grumpy child bloom. Just work the lever and leave delinquents with a formative experience. Sickness and exhaustion, just like the worst day in someone's retail career.
The rifle woman (leader, maybe?) groans in pain, physically unharmed yet unable to muster the strength to stand. "What…what even is this? Who the hell are you!?"
One of the SMG users whines. "I'm dizzy…my tummy hurts…"
"It's a miracle~" She sing songs with a toothy grin, doing a little curtsy as she introduces herself, Bosse hanging in the air to free her hand, "Kiaka Fukajo, pleasure to make your acquaintance. Now, cough out the cash. I'm going to treat myself to some unagi after this."
The rifle woman struggles to lift her prone body. Her elbows buckle, and she falls flat on her face again. "You won't get away with this, Kaika Fukajo! The Chicken Dinner Street Gang will never forget this humiliation!" She tries to sound tough, but her voice is muffled by its close proximity to the pavement.
The MG users are out cold. The SMG user who's still awake continues to whine. "I need to go to the bathroom…"
"Right, lemme just–" Bosse's stock melts away, leaving her free to swing the ethereal demon through the poor girl's head, ripping away the sickness curse. Of course, she flips the gun back around and gives her a point blank shot of exhaustion before she can even
think about getting cute. "There you go. Can't have my mugging victims soiling themselves while I'm in the middle of fleecing them."
"As for you…" She says, skipping over to the fallen riflewoman, squatting next to her. With her feet fully on the ground, of course, she is no western spy, "If you are serious about that, give me your phone number. We can coordinate a rematch."
The rifle woman's eyes go wide, and her face goes red. "Don't…don't mess with me! Just because you have a cute face doesn't mean I'm going to fall for your charms!"
She then turns her gaze to the ground. "Besides, everyone knows that the SMG girls are cuter…damn it!"
"I, uh, I mean, uhm, that's–" Kaika segfaults, tripping over her own words before shaking her head hard enough to nearly dislodge her hairband, "That wasn't a pick up line.
Even if a fight at midnight sounds romantic and you look pretty good and– I'm going to shut up now. Wallet, now."
Kaika leaves 53000 credits richer, but at what cost?
The next few hours for Kaika are a blur of activity. As she follows her map on a lazy, meandering path through the turmoil embroiled cityscape, she finds many fantastic sights. The Chicken Dinner Street Gang is only one of what turns out to be many roving delinquent gangs dressed in the Sukeban style. However, they are far from the only forces at play.
"NOBODY MESSES WITH THE HELMET GANG! CRUSH THEM ALL!"
Only slightly less prolific than the omnipresent Sukeban, are the Helmet Gang. Haloed Students wearing sailor outfits and biker helmets with cute yellow ribbons. The grunts wear black, and the officers wear red. Occasionally, there's a robot or two with them, painted black with yellow highlights and wearing the same black helmet as the grunts. What really surprises Kaika, though, are the tanks. Not only do the Helmet Gangsters have tanks, painted and ribboned in their signature style, but the streets of Kivotos seem to be built to accommodate them. Are…are tanks a common means of transportation here!?
"THIS BUSINESS IS UNDER THE PROTECTION OF KAISER SECURITY! STAND DOWN IMMEDIATELY, OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE!"
The more expensive looking buildings often have a mix of combat robots and students in tactical gear guarding them. They occasionally deploy tanks as well, but generally stick to the specific buildings and businesses that hired them. They don't spare a second's attention on anyone or anything else.
Which is good, because it means they don't give a damn as she sets up ambushes to fleece the delinquents. It is laughably easy to bounce between walls to get up on a rooftop, at which point she just has to box them in with Mercer disposable demons and shoot them like fish in a barrel. Honestly, the reason Enforcers are looked down on must be jealousy, this is a high and a half.
The only thing she steers clear of are the basements on tracks. She
has, in theory, a way to deal with them. And besides, she'd rather not risk a tank shell to the face. It'd be a pain to actually get in and loot their wallets. Even if the idea of making a Mimesis to possess a tank is sorely tempting. Sadly, the paperwork says she'll be staying at the dorms, so she doubts there will be anywhere to keep a trophy that large.
Speaking of, she's glad that she has a backpack, because her wallet couldn't take any more money ten groups in.
That aside, Kivotos keeps delivering weirdness straight to her lap. Dogs, cats, and birds - all bipedal, fully clothed, and roughly four to five feet tall - cower behind locked doors. With them are robots with screens for faces, clearly not built for combat like the Kaiser models. A quick Structural Analysis as she parkours by tells Kaika that they, too, are unnaturally durable, but not to the same degree as people with a halo.
It's easy to tell when Kaika is on the home stretch, and not just because she has a map. The delinquent gangs, while still present, are much less prevalent. The buildings look nicer, with an architectural style that strongly reminds her of a fusion between the Church and Clock Tower. There's no sign of Kaiser anywhere. Instead…
"HALT! THIS IS THE JUSTICE TASK FORCE OF TRINITY ACADEMY! PRESENT YOUR STUDENT ID, OR YOU WILL BE DETAINED IMMEDIATELY!"
The forces suppressing the delinquents with ruthless efficiency, and protecting the townspeople fearlessly, can be described succinctly as
absolutely adorable.
She wants to take them home and spoil them rotten.
Thankfully, by now she's vented all her steam and then some, so all she displays is a small pleasant smile and the ID on her offhand, "As great as I'm sure your hospitality is, I'm afraid I have some prior commitments with my dorm room."
One of the beret wearing first years takes the offered ID, while the rest keep their guns trained on Kaika. Which, hey, fair enough. She still has Bosse out. The first year wastes no time confirming the veracity of the ID, and gives her squad the 'all clear' sign.
"Right then, you're good. I'm having two of my squadmates escort you to your dorm."
The rest of the squad either lowers their guns, or turns around in a defensive holding pattern around them. "Nobody's seen a Magus before, and with all the craziness going on, we don't want any panicked students to mistake you for a trespasser."
"I
do have the uniform, but I suppose the eyes make me look out of place enough they may think I looted it from someone." She replies with an easy roll of the shoulders.
"They're very pretty," The squad leader says with honest appreciation, making Kaika preen. "But you hit the nail on the head. The stories I could tell…but we can chat about it over tea later. For now, we have to get back on patrol, and to get you to your destination safely. Hantei, Kinben, you're up."
At the squad leader's word, two of the adorable First Years take up positions covering Kaika's flanks. "Yes, ma'am!"
"Aye aye, ma'am." Kaika says with a smile and a two finger salute, "I do so love a professional."
After the brief exchange, the two groups part ways. Afterwards, Kaika and her new escorts only have to travel for three blocks before they arrive at the
main gate.
It hadn't really sunk in until now that she's going to a religious school. Poor Sultore has to retreat back into his brooch from how bright the old brickwork shines with faith. Thankfully, it is only that. Bright. Not burning. Not at all like a church back home, whose mere vicinity would be degrading her children.
Once she gets past that, the campus… honestly, it is to the Clocktower as Kivotos is to London. Shining blue and white, utterly immaculate, like an ideal made physical. There's none of the oppressiveness of the Mage Association, and she doesn't need supernatural senses to tell the ideation here is warm and welcoming.
She just keeps trading up, huh?
There's a lot she could say about it, but now that she's cooled back down, all she can manage is a, "Pleasant enough place. Which is the dorm building?"
"Right this way, past the Cathedral and the Library," Kinben answers. She and Hantei appear to be more relaxed now that the group is on campus grounds, but they haven't dropped their guard entirely.
"By the way, Kaika-senpai. How do you get your gun to glow and smoke like that? It's really pretty, and scary without being TOO scary." Kinben's tone is one of interest, as though she was asking a friend about their makeup.
"Oh, that's because Bosse isn't
really a gun, just a gun-shaped demon." She replies on automatic, before catching herself, "Er, I think they're called Mimesises around here?"
"Huh. Mimesises…I've heard that word before…Hantei, wasn't that what the Sisterhood called those four armed things we fought in the ruins the other day?" Kinben asks, with a thoughtful look on her face.
"Yeah, that's right. The Sisterhood keeps their secrets close, but they did give us a bit of intel. How do you keep it under control, Kaika-senpai?" Hantei looks at Bosse with a raised eyebrow. "The ones we saw acted on instinct, and would have started shooting already."
"Oh, yeah, wild de- Mimesises are like that. It's like they're perpetually trapped in a heated moment, makes them irrational." Kaika starts explaining, "Of course, that ju–"
The sound of gunfire rings out from the nearby library building, cutting Kaika off mid sentence and sending the JTF students into high alert again immediately.
"..." For the first time since she got off the train, Kaika's smile vanishes. Her entire expression shutters into something more at home in a corpse, not allowing a single shred of emotion through. "
Make way."
The building obliges, white brick parting like a curtain to let her blur through, fire racing down her nerves.
Kinben freezes up for a moment, confused and seemingly torn. "Wait! We're supposed to be…and how did you…"
Hantei, on the other hand, leaps into action immediately. "Oh, shut it, Kinben! You want to intervene, too! Kaika-senpai just simplified things!"
"R..right!" Kinben snaps out of it quickly, and joins Hantei and Kaika as they charge into the library with murderous intent.
The scene awaiting them is enough to make a bibliophile's blood run cold. A small handful of Sukeban, holding lit zippos, are keeping a librarian at gunpoint. "YOU HEARD ME!!! WAIVE THE LATE FEES OR WE'RE PAYING IN LEAD! OR DO YOU WANT US TO DROP THE LIGHTERS?"
"Boss? Don't you think we're going too far this time? We wouldn't have late fees in the first place if we didn't like the books…"
"Too late." Whispers the specter of death right behind them, the whole building seeming to suck in a breath as all lights go out, even the zippos. "
Freikugel."
The only source of illumination is the glowing trail of the spectral bullet as it punches right through the chest of the rearmost Sukeban, the spark of blue jumping from heart to eye to brain to gut. Wheezes come out as muscles seize, the delinquents toppling like unstrung puppets.
By the time the lights come back on, they're all stuck in a barrel of bone, encased up to their necks in a massive clump of the material.
"They didn't damage anything, did they?" Kaika asks softly, wringing her hands and looking around trying to find the slightest evidence of a damaged book. She doesn't so much as spare a glance for the Sukeban maki roll.
"Umm…no, I don't think so…?" The mousy librarian girl answers, trembling. The look on her face says she wants to be anywhere but here right now. "May I ask who you are, miss…?"
"Kaika Fukajo." She introduces herself, internally screaming because oh god oh fuck the poor girl's afraid and she's
dogshit at being comforting. Oh, wait! "Paimon, activate Solomon Protocol."
The phone slotted into her belt chimes in agreement.
"It's fine, Chie-san," Hantei reassures her classmate, as Kinben radios for cleanup. "Kaika-senpai's weapons are scary, but she's nice!"
By then, however, Kaika is in the throes of Self-Hypnosis.
The eye snaps open, the pupil contracts.
Ideation wells up, power shapes it, reality buckles.
Light pours from her phone, ether clumps form on her hand.
"I name you Dachi."
They meet.
"Wee~" The little floating
octopus chirps, floating over to hug the librarian, its tentacles suddenly lengthening to accomplish its righteous mission. "
Prrrrrrrrrrrr"
"Oh, that makes sense!" Hantei exclaims, snapping her fingers as the pieces fall into place in her mind. "You can safely use the Mimesises because you made it!"
Three seconds pass in silence. "Wait. You can MAKE Mimesises?"
Kaika blinks owlishly. "Yeah? That's what I was getting to. Wild ones are erratic, so make them under controlled conditions to get something reliable. It just takes gathering some ideation, er, thoughts and feelings, and refining them."
Chie nervously pokes the purring octopus clinging to her. When it reacts by snuggling and purring louder, the young girl begins to smile and laugh.
Success!
Kinben turns her attention away from her walkie talkie for a moment to watch the scene unfolding. "... Kaika-senpai? What emotions did you use just now, to make Dachi?"
"Erm, I-
I used my desire to comfort her." She mumbles, looking anywhere but at Chie, cheeks burning.
Hantei and Kinben share a look and a nod. "Mimesis on site, non hostile. I repeat, non hostile. Situation Green."
The next half hour or so goes by in a blur. One of the older members of the JTF brings a small group to pick up the trapped delinquents. After assurance from Kaika that the bone would melt on its own after a couple of hours, it was decided that they would be placed in their cell as they were.
Hantei and Kinben escorted Kaika the rest of the way to her dorm room. Before parting ways, however, the pair express interest in meeting again, and possibly learning Cursecraft themselves. If Kaika is interested, of course. And that Chie would probably want to come too, she was absolutely smitten with Dachi.
It is only when she is inside her dorm room, checking over the Greater Key's files that it hits her.
"...Sister, I think I made friends."
The files labeled MA-F don't answer.