I found myself needing a slight break from writing the next chapter of DSR last night, so of course I started writing something else.

As a couple of people have requested, the story of the origin of Aiko and her magical girl team. No Ranma in this one. It can be read as a standalone story, although it's part of the DSR series.

Next chapter of DSR soon.

"Girls!"

Everyone turned to look at Mrs Genda, who was looking sternly at the class of twenty-seven teenagers between thirteen and fifteen, all of them standing in a semicircle just outside the Kyoto National Museum, which they had arrived at minutes before. Fumiko nudged her sister Misaki, who was more interested in the packet of peanuts she'd found from somewhere than the middle-aged woman who was giving her an evil look.

"Put it away, sis, old Grumpy is staring at you," she hissed out of the side of her mouth. Slightly unwillingly her sister did as requested, smiling innocently back at the dumpy woman, who stared for a further couple of seconds, then went back to looking at the others. One or two of the young ladies giggled very quietly.

"Now, pay attention, girls. We're here to see the special exhibition of ancient art which is being shown here for a few weeks. It includes not only Japanese works but a number of masterpieces on loan from Europe, China, and North America, including a series of extraordinarily valuable and interesting Leonardo Da Vinci papers and drawings on human anatomy. They are being shown here for the first time in Japan, and it's something you are unlikely to see again, so take your time examining them." The woman looked around to see that her words of wisdom were being appropriately soaked up by the enquiring young minds standing in front of her.

"Miss Maedam? Would it be too much to ask that you listen to me?" she enquired with menacing politeness, staring hard at one of Fumiko's best friends, a petite brunette, who had let her attention drift towards a group of tourists that seemed to be from France, if their boisterous chatter was any guide. The girl twitched, looking guiltily back to her teacher.

"Sorry, Mrs Genda."

"Please pay attention." The teacher sighed to herself quietly. "All right. We're going to go in, quietly and respectfully, to meet the guide who will take us around the exhibits and explain what we're seeing. Listen to him carefully and take notes if you have any questions. There will be some time near the end to ask them." She looked at her watch for a moment. "The tour should take four hours. We'll break for lunch afterwards, then you'll have another three hours to look around other parts of the museum until it's time to go back to the train station." The girls looked at each other, then back at the teacher.

"It shouldn't have to be said, but based on past experiences, I'll say it anyway. Don't touch anything, don't go anywhere you shouldn't, and don't interrupt anyone who is working on anything like a ladder, or a scaffold, or..." She sighed again, more loudly. "I'm looking at you, Miss Arai." The red-headed girl addressed, another of Fumiko's best friends, blushed and looked at the ground, kicking one of the flagstones with her right toe.

"It was an accident, Mrs Genda, like I said at the time..."

"Yet, even so, the school is banned from the Science Museum for the next two years, isn't it?"

"They found all the pieces and put it back together," the auburn-haired girl protested, not all that loudly. Fumiko tried not to giggle at the tone of her voice. Mrs Genda shook her head sadly.

"Eventually. But two of the technicians had to take time off for stress, I heard. They weren't happy, not at all. Apparently it took them six weeks to build that exhibit in the first place and they'd only finished it half an hour earlier. Your aid was not appreciated."

Several of the girls snickered at the expression on their class-mate's face, which was one of extreme embarrassment. Fumiko glanced at her sister, who was making muffled snorting sounds she knew meant the girl was suppressing her own giggles.

"Sorry, Mrs Genda," their friend mumbled.

"Indeed. Let's try not to have anything of a similar nature happen this time, please." The teacher scanned the assembled young women, doing a quick head-count, then motioned to the front entrance of the large and imposing building. "Let's go inside. Remember, quiet, decorous, and attentive, girls." She marched off towards the entrance where a young man in his mid twenties was looking out at them, apparently the guide they were to meet.

Fumiko and her sister hung back slightly, the red-head joining them, still looking slightly embarrassed. The petite brunette who had been watching the French tourists walked over and took a place next to her, snickering a little. "You have to admit she has a point, Tamiko. That poor tech guy looked horrified. All those little bits rolling around all over the floor, running off under all the other machines..." She laughed as her friend gave her an unfriendly look.

Misaki giggled, producing her peanuts again and tossing some in her mouth, then waving the bag around invitingly. "Made a wonderful noise though," she chuckled. Tamiko grumpily helped herself to some nuts, poking her brunette friend in the ribs when she giggled as well.

"Shut up, Aiko," she grumbled, "it wasn't funny. Mom was shouting at me for days over that one. The museum nearly charged us for the time it took to rebuild the damn thing."

"You shouldn't have pressed that button," her friend replied, still giggling. "And yes, it was that funny. I still don't know how you managed to cause that much mess in about two seconds. It was very impressive."

"Idiots," Tamiko muttered under her breath, following her three friends as they went after the rest of their classmates, taking some more peanuts when Misaki offered them with a smile.

Inside the museum, the young man was talking quietly to their teacher, who nodded a couple of times, then turned to them. All the girls put on their best 'Honest, I'm listening to you with respect' faces, perfected after much practice. "Girls, this is Mr Kihara, who is going to be our guide. He knows a lot about all the exhibits so please pay attention. Miss Maedam! This means you!" She looked hard at Aiko who sighed a little, but nodded back.

"Yes, Mrs Genda," she replied as respectfully as she could manage. Satisfied, the teacher looked around at the rest of them, before turning back to the tour guide.

"We're in your hands, Mr Kihara."

"OK, Mrs Genda. Girls. If you'll follow me, we'll be passing through the Japanese art exhibit first. Please come this way." He motioned to the rear of the entrance hall, towards a large arched doorway through which a number of paintings on silk could just be made out. The teacher beside him, he headed in that direction, the young women following in groups. "This first item is a scroll dating from the middle of the Muromachi period, illustrating the tale of a priest warding off a demon that was terrorising a village. Note the brush technique, typical of the period, and the grace and elegance of the strokes..." He talked steadily for the next forty minutes, stopping at painting after painting.

Fumiko and her sister and friends were at the rear of the cluster of teenaged girls, listening half-heartedly to something that was fairly interesting but let down by the relentless drone of someone who obviously knew his subject but had little idea of how to get it across to young people in an entertaining way. She was finding herself both somewhat bored and slightly hungry. Prodding her sister on the shoulder, she asked in a low voice, "Got anything to eat?"

Misaki shook her head. "Why not? You always have something to eat." Fumiko looked annoyed.

"Ate it all," the other girl said shortly. Tamiko, beside them, had regained her normal cheerful mood and laughed quietly.

"You need to figure out how to carry more food, Misaki," she joked in a whisper. Mrs Genda looked back at them for a moment causing them all to resume listening attentively or at least appear to be doing so, until her attention went back to Mr Kihara.

"I'm hungry too," Aiko muttered. They followed the guide and their compatriots for another twenty minutes, looking around more at the things he wasn't talking about than the things he was. After a while, Misaki, now visibly bored, took the opportunity presented by both the teacher and the guide vanishing around a corner in the apparently infinitely long art gallery to sidle over to the edge of the room where she had spotted a slightly open door that seemed to have some stairs leading down behind it.

"Where are you going?" Fumiko demanded sotto voce when she noticed her sister had moved off. She went to stand beside the other girl, her friends looking around at her hissed comment, exchanging glances, then joining them. "We can't go in there. Can't you read?" She pointed to the discreet 'Staff Only – No Admittance' notice on the door.

Misaki nudged the door with her foot, causing it to swing open a little further. They all winced, half-expecting an alarm to go off. Nothing happened.

"Let's have a look," Misaki suggested, glancing around a little guiltily. No one seemed to be watching them, in fact the gallery was nearly empty near them, the rest of their class having disappeared around the corner from which the sound of the guide's voice could be heard coming faintly.

"We'll get in trouble," her sister retorted, holding her arm.

"No one's looking," Misaki replied, looking around again. Fumiko followed her eyes as did the other two. It was true, they seemed to be completely alone now.

"There'll be cameras and things," Tamiko said, although in a tone of voice that made it clear she wasn't completely averse to the idea. Aiko looked about, then up, scanning the ceiling. She pointed.

"There's a couple of them but they're all pointing in other directions," the short girl noted. "That's not very good security." Following her eyes Fumiko looked at the cameras, then turned back to her older sister. Or where her sister had been. Now there was only the half-open door and faint footsteps stealthily descending the stairs on the other side.

"Damn it, Misaki. Get back here!" With another look over her shoulder she darted after the girl.

Aiko and Tamiko exchanged glances, shrugged, then followed.

"This isn't a good idea," Tamiko mumbled.

"Beats listening to that guy for another three hours," her friend replied, to which she, after a short consideration, was forced to agree.

Behind them, the door, gently swinging in the breeze of their passage, slowly swung shut with a very solid click, which none of them heard from the bottom of the staircase.

"Brilliant. We're lost. Nice going, sis."

"But we're lost in an interesting place," Misaki replied, grinning. "Look at all this stuff. What do you think this is?" She held up some sort of ancient knife-like thing.

"Put it down! It's probably a thousand years old and really fragile," Fumiko snapped. Shrugging, her sister did as requested, then picked up a sort of spearhead that was on the bench next to it, inspecting it curiously. Sighing to herself, Fumiko looked around.

They were in a dimly lit room that was roughly L shaped, long and thin, with shelves down both sides, the bench they'd found at one end. It appeared to her to be some sort of inventory area for storage of all the various oddities that were shoved onto the shelves in no discernible order, some of them with tags on that had cryptic labels in dozens of different people's handwriting, others completely anonymous. Cardboard boxes, paper envelopes, metal mesh crates, and all manner of other storage containers were everywhere, some overflowing with items.

"There must be millions of things down here," Aiko commented, looking around. "I wonder how often anyone comes into this room? It's really dusty."

This was true, the room was covered in a fine layer of dust that showed no signs of having been disturbed for weeks at least. All four of them were lightly but evenly coated with it from their explorations over the last hour or so. So far, they'd descended at least three flights of stairs, although they'd also gone up one that had been oddly short, which by Fumiko's estimation meant they must be on at least the floor below the normal basement.

"This place is a maze down here," Aiko added.

"That's the problem," her friend replied, sighing. "I have no idea where we came in or where to get out."

"We just keep looking around," Misaki said, putting the old spearhead down on the table with a faint clunk. "Sooner or later we'll either find the way out or someone will find us and kick us out." She looked perfectly all right with either option.

"Or we never find the way out, no one ever comes and finds us, and we die of starvation or thirst down here," Fumiko mumbled. Aiko and Misaki exchanged looks then burst out laughing.

"I doubt it," the petite girl giggled. "We can always call for help. I saw a phone a couple of rooms ago."

Tamiko stuck her head around the corner of the room, making all three girls jump when she called them. "Hey, you guys, come and have a look at what I found," she said, grinning. They exchanged glances then followed the red-head as she disappeared again. Leaving the room they found her outside in the wide, low-ceilinged corridor. "Down there," she pointed, leading the way. They passed a few doors which were locked to arrive at one that wasn't. Tamiko pushed on it, swinging it wide open, then entered the room, flipping a switch beside the door in the process. Old fluorescent lights came on randomly above them with little plinking sounds, flickering a few times and settling down to a low hum, one in the far corner making tired unhappy noises and blinking on and off.

"Wow." Aiko looked around, then at her friends. "You remember that bit at the end of Raiders...?" They all nodded, impressed.

"What is all this stuff?" Fumiko wondered out loud.

"No idea, but there's a lot of it," Tamiko replied. "Look, the date on this crate is about a hundred years ago and it's still nailed shut. I can't see that it's ever been opened."

"Weird." Misaki inspected the crate with interest, reading the cramped handwriting on a faded and yellowed label pasted to the side, her head tilted, then looked around. "Maybe this is where they keep all the old crap they haven't got around to looking at yet?"

"Must be." Aiko shrugged. "It's a pretty big room, though. How much stuff have they got that all this can be left down here for a century or so?

"Lots," Tamiko replied, laughing. "Come on, let's see if any of these are open." She wandered off into the room. After a moment, her friends followed, heading into the maze of piled wooden crates that nearly filled the enormous storage room, only narrow passages left between rows of them. None of them could work out how some of the boxes had even been put into the room in the first place.

Some time later, even more covered in dust and now rather tired, Fumiko leaned against a large crate and wiped her face with her sleeve. "I'm really hungry now," she complained, "and thirsty as well. Not to mention hot, sweaty, and tired. Can we go back yet, sis?"

Beside her, Misaki laughed for a moment, looking up from trying to puzzle out the label on the crate her sister was leaning on. "In a minute. I just want to look over there." She pointed to the end of the corridor formed by the wall of old wooden crates they were standing in the middle off. Fumiko followed her finger, sighed, nodded, then pushed herself erect.

"Come on, then, let's get it over with. Where the hell are Aiko and Tamiko?"

"Up here," a voice said, making them both look up, to see the red-head looking down at them, apparently lying on top of a huge crate some three metres tall. She grinned at them.

"How on earth did you get up there?" Fumiko asked, bewildered. "And why?"

"A ladder back there, and I was curious," her friend replied with a giggle. Shaking her head, Fumiko looked up at the other girl.

"We really are going to get in trouble for this, you know," she said after a few seconds.

"It's more fun than that tour, though, isn't it?" Aiko said from behind her, making her yelp and jump.

"Shit! Don't sneak up on me like that!" she snarled when she recovered.

"Sorry. I wasn't trying to sneak anywhere." Her friend looked apologetic.

"Well, be more..." They all froze as they heard voices.

"Oh, crap," Aiko whispered after a long moment. She looked up at Tamiko, who was peering off towards the doorway they'd come in through. "Who is it?" she asked as quietly as she could. The auburn-haired girl on top of the crate flattened herself as much as she could and quietly shifted around to look. After a moment she looked down.

"Two men and a woman, with a sort of trolley," she reported in a whisper. Looking again, she was frowning a little when she turned back to her friends. "It's weird, the woman is waving some sort of machine at the crates like she's looking for something." The girl went back to observing while her friends waited below, trying not to make any noise. "There's something very odd about her," she added in a very quiet voice.

"You should get down from there," Fumiko told her, looking up in worry. They could here the distant voices coming slowly closer. Tamiko raised her head a little, looked around quickly, then nodded, rotating on her belly and crawling over the boxes towards the ladder she'd used to get up there in the first place. Below, her friends followed. Shortly she was standing next to them brushing dust and splinters of old dry wood from her clothes.

"This outfit is ruined," she mumbled, annoyed.

"Like that's the most important thing right now?" Fumiko asked incredulously. Her friend shrugged a little.

"I like this skirt," Tamiko griped. They all froze again as the voices of three people came from only a couple of aisles away.

"Shh." Misaki held her finger over her lips. The other three nodded. After a moment, curiosity got the better of them. Exchanging glances, they headed down the aisle of crates they were standing in, moving as quietly as they could, until Misaki found a gap in the piles through which she peered, stopping again. After a moment she stood to one side, pointing. The others each took turns looking through.

Two men and a woman were indeed with them in the room, apparently unaware they were being watched by four nervous schoolgirls. The woman was very tall, and in some indefinable manner, not moving in quite the way one would expect. Her hair was deep blue and down to her shoulders, her eyes a piercing grey-green colour from what they could see, while she was wearing more or less normal clothing but in a way that made it look like she wasn't used to it somehow. None of them could quite put their finger on what was wrong but the longer they looked the more certain they were that something was.

Beside her, the men were pretty ordinary, one short but strongly built guy in his mid-forties, the other one perhaps ten years younger and slightly taller and thinner, but with much less hair. Both of them were wearing overalls that made them look like moving men or something similar, an impression reinforced by the heavy-duty powered trolley that the younger one was manipulating rather clumsily through the piles of crates.

The woman was holding something about the size of a cell-phone which she was studying and occasionally prodding, muttering to herself in a language none of them had ever encountered before. Apparently not entirely happy with whatever it was that it was telling her, she said something under her breath that sounded miffed and whacked it quite hard against a crate, provoking a faint buzzing sound and a weird smile. She turned around a couple of times, then pointed.

"That one," she announced, an unusual accent in her voice. "Open it."

"You sure this time?" the shorter man asked. Glaring at him, she repeated her last two words. He shrugged, picked a large crowbar out of the trolley his colleague was still having difficulty with, then approached the crate and rammed the end of the thing into a gap in the old wood. Leaning on it for a few seconds he was eventually rewarded with a loud cracking sound as the wood splintered, then a screech that made Fumiko and her friends wince when the old nails began moving. "Come on, you lazy bastard," he snapped to his younger associate, "stop playing with that damn thing and help me."

The other man collected a second crowbar, moving to the other side of the crate and repeating the process his friend had gone through. The woman waited impatiently, watching but making no move to help. The cracking and screeching sounds repeated themselves half a dozen times until the side of the metre and a half square crate finally popped loose and slammed down onto the floor in a cloud of dust. Inside the crate was a wall of tightly packed straw, which the first man began to pull out.

"Be careful," the woman said sharply. He glanced at her, sighing a little, but nodded. Slowing down just enough to make her look satisfied he continued to remove the straw. The four girls watching stared as what was under the straw gradually revealed itself.

"What the hell is that?" Aiko whispered. The others all shrugged, staring in amazement.

"It's the ugliest whatever it is that I've ever seen," Tamiko noted, wincing and rubbing her eyes for a moment. "It gives me a headache looking at it, too."

The woman smiled in a display of weirdly inhuman pleasure. "Finally," she said in a low voice, her teeth showing in a smile that made them all flinch.

"I don't think she's human," Misaki commented almost idly after a long few seconds, during which the woman moved forward to reach into the box and gently stroke the horrible little statue or whatever it really was. Both the men stood back out of range, neither one of them looking at it. As her hand touched it the statue briefly glowed in a colour that none of them could later describe. They gaped in shock.

All three of the other girls looked at Misaki for a moment, then back at the woman. "What do you mean?" Fumiko finally whispered, startled by what had just happened and worried by her sister's comment.

"I'm not sure, but I don't think she's human," her sister replied. "I don't know what she is, though."

They all watched as the woman inspected the thing for a little while, then stood back. "Get it out of the box," she instructed, pointing. "We need to leave quickly."

"OK, OK, don't get all worked up," the older man muttered irritably, looking at his associate. With a jerk of his head he indicated he should take hold, waiting until the other man had a good grip on the thing then both of them lifting, grunting slightly with the strain. It was apparently a heavy horrible little statue-thing if nothing else. Taking small careful steps they headed for the trolley which was further away than was ideal. The woman watched intently, smiling again in an unpleasant manner that made all four girls nearly as uneasy as the sight of the thing the men were moving did.

The four girls saw what was going to happen just before it did. The younger man had dropped his crowbar to the floor when the crate had been opened, in a position that was exactly right for his left foot to come down on, then slip off sideways when the metal bar moved under his weight. This caused him to stumble only slightly, but with the significant load of the statue, it was enough.

"Shit!" he yelped as he went to one knee, his colleague swearing indecipherably as he suddenly found himself holding much more than half the rather off-centre weight. The woman made a weird noise and lunged for the thing, too late, as it slipped out of the hands of the two men transporting it and crashed onto the concrete floor. The sound made Fumiko and her friends jump even though they'd seen it about to happen.

"Damn it!," the older man shouted, bending over the ghastly statue to inspect the damage. They could see that at a minimum one appendage had snapped off and skittered away over the floor, his body hiding most of it from their view. The same strange glow as before became apparent, much more strongly, rising like a cloud from the broken artefact as they watched in shock.

The woman, meanwhile, had jumped back and raised her hands protectively in front of her. She snarled something in that weird language sounding very worried indeed, a worry that was obviously based on fact when the older man suddenly screamed in agony with an immediacy that made everyone, even the odd woman, jump violently. What happened next would stay in their nightmares for years.

"Oh, my god," Fumiko gasped, her hand over her mouth. Behind her she could hear someone being sick. The short man twitched a few more times from where he had collapsed with a nasty gurgling sound, his body, or what remained of it, rapidly liquefying in a manner horribly reminescent of a candle put on a hot stove. His colleague took one look, screamed something unintelligible, then backed away and pressed himself against one of the larger crates, his eyes wide in horror. None of the girls paid any more attention to that, their gazes fixed on the woman and what she was doing.

She was moving her hands in precise patterns while saying something very complex, looking like she was fighting against some force that didn't like her actions, but was unable to prevent her. The remaining man said something in the same odd language she'd been using earlier, sounding terrified, which she ignored.

Fumiko realised she could smell smoke, like from a wood fire, and now that it entered her consciousness, became aware that she'd been smelling it for the last few seconds. A muted yip from beside her made her look away from what was happening out in the larger clear area to where Aiko was retreating from the crate they were standing next to, as smoke began visibly pouring from it in a large circle on the side. All four of them backed away from this new threat. There was a weird feeling in the air, coming from both the alien woman still chanting in her odd language, and the crate, which was smoking violently.

With a suddenness that made them twitch the old wood abruptly poofed out of existence, a cloud of wood powder slumping to the floor and making them cough. "What the hell is going on?" Tamiko yelped in a hoarse whisper. None of her friends had a good answer.

"And what is that?" Aiko asked, pointing. They watched the dissipating dust cloud as a small transparent red sphere a few centimetres across, looking like an enormous ruby, floated rather improbably out of it to hang in the air in front of them. Splitting their attention between where whatever was going on next to the broken statue thing seemed to be reaching a crescendo and the floating ball, all four girls stepped back as one when it emitted a deep red fan of light that quickly swept across them for a second before snapping off as abruptly as it had appeared.

A moment later the ball vanished with a muted bang. Fine glittering dust billowed across them, bringing with it the weirdest sensation any of them had ever felt, as they leaped back in a futile attempt to evade it. "What the fuck... was..."

Fumiko's voice trailed off as she stared at her friends, who were looking back at her with an expression of incredulity that she was sure mirrored her own. She looked down.

"Um." Tamiko poked herself gingerly. "What are we wearing? Where did my clothes go?"

"But..." Aiko looked at herself, then her friends, her mouth open. "But... But..."

"Stop making moped noises for god's sake," Fumiko snapped, in no mood to be polite. "What the hell is going on?" They exchanged bewildered glances. The identical blue and gold 'clothing', if indeed it could be referred to as such due to the fact it was hardly there in the first place, which had replaced their original clothes, was something of a shock.

The sensation of oddness that had been coming from the small drama in process a few metres away peaked, a strange wave of something coming from it, then all went silent. They exchanged glances before turning to look just in time to see the glowing cloud of something twist in mid-air and begin heading for the woman, who smiled at it in a way that made them all shiver. Contacting her it seemed to simply seep into her through her skin, causing her to glow in the same manner for a few seconds, and her hair to move around all by itself. When the cloud had vanished they noticed with some awe that her eyes continued to glow.

Her remaining companion stared with what looked like terrified horror at her and said something in that weird language. She replied, sounding pleased, which he definitely wasn't. Shouting at her he took a few steps closer, pointing at the broken statue, which was apparently slowly crumbling away to powder, and the by-now completely liquid remains of his former associate. She smiled nastily as he stomped neared her, saying something that made him go red, then, as he got within reach, whipped out her left arm which was suddenly holding a thirty centimetre long and obviously razor-sharp knife which she plunged into his chest with ease. He stopped dead, then the metaphor became reality as he slumped to the floor, his expression frozen in mixed anger and horror, blood gushing out as she removed the blade.

"Holy shit!" Tamiko yelped, this last shock too much for her to remember to keep her voice down. The woman whirled, raising the blade in one hand and poising her other hand in a claw like manner that for some reason made them all duck. This was a good reflex that probably saved them, as a pulse of energy shot overhead to impact on a crate behind them, leaving a smoking hole in it. The auburn-haired girl repeated her epithet, much more loudly, as she stared at the damage. Turning her head she met the eyes of her friends. They looked at each other for a long moment...

Later, none of them could remember who said it. Someone, though, yelled "Get her!" loudly and all four of them piled over the stack of crates, suddenly finding themselves holding various odd martial arts type weapons with no clear memory of where they'd come from. Fumiko noticed that the pair of sai she was holding, one in each hand, with an expertise that she didn't know she possessed, were gently glowing a pale pastel blue. For some reason they felt right in her hands. Her sister and both their friends were also wielding weapons none of them had ever held until just now with a competence that she'd have found worrying if she had time to think about it, Misaki waving a pole-arm of some sort, something she vaguely recalled was called a naginata, while Tamiko had a rather long traditional sword and Aiko was holding a pair of stylised hand-scyth-like things of some sort. All their weapons were glowing as well in different colours.

At the back of her mind, Fumiko realised she'd jumped completely over the two metre stack of crates like it was a low wall, an impossible feat that she simply didn't have time to think about as she ducked another blast of whatever odd energy the woman shot at them. Her sister had smashed right through another crate like it was made of thin balsa wood. Something very unusual was going on, she decided, trying not to giggle. She lashed out with one sai, almost catching the alien woman with it, but missing as her opponent frantically contorted herself in a way that a human woman couldn't possibly manage to avoid the blade.

"Look out," someone called as the woman fired at them again. Fumiko dropped to the ground, catching herself on her hands and holding her entire body rigid and off the ground for a moment in a feat of strength that would normally take years of practice and training, only to push herself back and land on her feet. 'How the hell am I doing this?' she thought frantically to herself, spinning around and bending out of the way of the woman's return strike with her razor-sharp blade in an improbable manner that would put an Olympic gymnast to shame, blocking the strike with her left sai and deflecting the knife. She had no answer, and no time to think about anything other than trying to survive what had instantly become what they all knew was a battle to the death.

For some reason, each of the girls knew without doubt that they had to stop the woman escaping, or a disaster of horrible proportions would strike. They didn't know what, or how they knew, but they were certain of it. "Look out," the cry came again, this time aimed as Tamiko who back-flipped twice to a position on top of another large crate as the woman fired a pair of energy blasts at her. Misaki darted in with her pole-arm, slashing viciously at the woman who screamed as the blade on the end of the long flexible pole ripped across her lower back.

Swearing in an alien language she whipped around at blurringly high speed and fired at the girl, who wasn't quite fast enough to get completely out of the way. Fumiko screamed as her sister flew back several metres to crash into the wall, then slide down it, sure she'd just seen her die, then sighed in relief as the other girl struggled to her feet with the aid of her weapon. Tamiko ran towards their opponent and slashed at her with her sword as a distraction, allowing Misaki to regain her feet and take cover behind a crate.

Looking around, Fumiko couldn't see Aiko for a few seconds, then spotted her on top of a stack of wooden boxes that reached nearly to the four metre ceiling. Her friend caught her eye and made a series of wild gestures that she eventually worked out meant she wanted the woman pushed into a position directly under her. She nodded, glancing quickly to the side to see Tamiko had worked it out as well. Both of them ducked yet again as a blast of energy went whistling past to smash something behind them, which loudly tinkled to the floor, then she ran at the woman who braced herself.

At the last moment she dropped to the floor on her back and slid neatly between the other female's legs, slashing at her ankles as she went past. The response was a shower of blue blood and a scream of pure rage as the creature, for it was very obvious by now that she was most certainly not human, as Misaki had stated, staggered, then turned to charge after her. The wounds were apparently painful but nowhere near as debilitating as they would be to a human.

Rolling to her feet near the stack Aiko was lurking on top of Fumiko jumped out of the way of the woman-thing's retaliatory strike, then ducked the return swing, grinning slightly as Tamiko took the opening presented to put her sword somewhere the woman really didn't appreciate it. More blood of an unusual hue spurted. Both girls moved in a manner that they would never have believed themselves capable of even five minutes before, manoeuvring to get their opponent into position.

As soon as she was standing in the right place, her back to the crates, Aiko dropped off the top of it with her scythes, which Fumiko suddenly remembered were called kama, held in an overhand grip at waist height, directly behind the creature. Her aim was perfect, the two blades, impossibly sharp, hitting the shoulders of the thing they were fighting and neatly removing both arms at once. The scream that followed this brutal attack made them all wince, only to blink slightly as it abruptly stopped dead. A soft thud echoed through the storeroom as the head of the thing fell to the floor, Misaki pulling her naginata back from where she'd popped out behind the nearest crate and swung it.

All four girls stared at the bodies on the floor, then each other, for a long few seconds.

"OK. What is going on?" Fumiko finally said, very confused, annoyed, frightened, and only just this side of total panic. Now that the immediate threat was over she felt her heart-rate beginning to climb even higher than the fight had managed to provoke. Looking around frantically she spotted a small box which she staggered over to and sat on, dropping both the weapons she was holding on the floor with a clatter and putting her head in her hands.

Twenty minutes passed in hyperventilation and denial until the reality of the situation sank in. Tamiko was also on the verge of hysteria, alternately staring at the bodies, the various bodily fluids liberally spread around the place, and herself and her friends, mumbling "Oh god," over and over. Eventually, sighing loudly, Misaki walked over, pulled her friend to her feet from where she'd been sitting next to Fumiko, and shook her hard.

"Stop doing that," the normally fairly taciturn girl snapped. "It's not helping anything. We need to work out what the hell we do now." She waved at the scene, which they all looked at rather dazedly. "We're in the middle of a room we shouldn't have been in in the first place, wearing some pervert's idea of a bathing suit or something, covered in yuck, and we need to get out of here. I don't know what the hell is going on but panicking isn't going to help."

Tamiko looked at her friend with her mouth open, so Misaki shook her again for good measure. Eventually the red-head nodded slightly, although whether this was a voluntary act or due to the shaking was anyone's guess at this point. Fumiko stared in shock, still pale and worried. Turning to her sister, Misaki inspected her for a moment, then without warning slapped her hard across the cheek.

"OW!" the girl screeched, jumping to her feet and retreating, holding her face with one hand. "What the hell did you do that for?"

"You looked like you needed it," her sister announced.

"Like hell I did," Fumiko retorted angrily.

"You were blinking at me like a stunned puppy," the other girl growled. "Not useful. Now at least you're up and talking. Think! What do we do?"

They glared at each other for a few seconds before looking at their two friends, who were watching them closely, Aiko looking thoughtful and Tamiko still looking worried and frightened, although much less so than shortly before.

"We need to get out of here, that's the most important thing," the petite girl finally said. She waved her hand at the wreckage surrounding them. "If we get caught in here wearing this getup we're going to have one hell of a time explaining it. We look like a bunch of magical girls who just had a fight with... a... demon..." She trailed off as they all exchanged a glance of incredulity, before looking around again, then down at themselves.

Eventually, Misaki sighed heavily. "Oh, crap."

"You mean...?" Tamiko looked shocked. Aiko nodded slowly, staring at one of the still glowing weapons she was holding.

"I think so." After a long moment she got an expression like she was trying to remember something that was on the tip of her tongue, before waving the kama in a sort of expectant manner. Nothing happened the first couple of times but suddenly she blinked, as surprised as her friends, when it wasn't in her hand any more. "Oh, my god. That was magic. I'm a magical girl. We're magical girls. What the hell happened?" Making a gesture she was holding the weapon again. She stared at it for several seconds before raising her gaze to meet those of her friends.

"We can't be magical girls," Tamiko said after a long silence. "Can we?"

"I can't see any other explanation," Misaki replied, watching as Aiko made both kama vanish then reappear. "It fits, I guess. Stupid clothes, that seems to be traditional, magical weapons, if that woman wasn't a demon I'll eat this damn thing," she shook her pole-arm for a moment, "and I'm pretty sure she was shooting magic at us. What else could it be?"

"Mom is going to throw a fit," Fumiko mused, her mind whirling, making her feel light-headed. Her sister turned on her.

"We can not tell her, or dad. They'll go nuts." She waved at her barely-there clothes. "You know what Mom would say if she ever saw us wearing this." Fumiko thought about her sister's words, paling.

"Oh, hell. No, we can't tell her, you're right, she'll go absolutely mental." The sisters exchanged a glance and shuddered slightly. Their mother, whom they both loved very much, was nonetheless a woman of strong opinions with no particular compunction about making them widely heard. Neither of them particularly fancied being on the receiving end of that, not after the last time.

"I can't tell my Mom either," Aiko mused, thinking about the probable reaction while plucking at her revealing clothing. She shook her head slowly. "That wouldn't be a good idea."

"But what do we do?" Tamiko asked nervously, looking down at herself, then at the sword she was still holding limply. Lifting it she inspected the blade for a moment before putting it down very gently on a convenient crate, then stepping back as if she wished to disassociate herself from it. "I don't really want to be a magical girl. They fight demons and get beaten up all the time. I've read the mangas. I've even seen it on the news."

"Maybe we can change back and forget all this ever happened?" Fumiko suggested hopefully. She looked around. Her sister looked dubious, Tamiko seemed to consider the idea was one she was perfectly happy with, while Aiko was frowning slightly at the kama she was holding in her right hand. Raising it she spun it in her fingers with a dexterity none of her friends would have thought she possessed, looking surprised at her own abilities, then made it go away.

"I'm not sure that will work," the short brunette said after a moment, "but I guess it's worth a try."

They all exchanged looked. A long pause followed her words.

"Um." They all glanced at Tamiko. "How do we change back?" she asked tentatively.

Nobody had a particularly good idea. Once more they looked at each other in silence. Eventually, Misaki started back towards the crate that had begun this entire weird episode, saying, "Let's see what else was in that box. Maybe there are instructions." Shrugging, Aiko followed, carefully skirting the puddle of former demon-associate on the floor with an expression of distaste. Fumiko and Tamiko looked at each other for a moment before following somewhat reluctantly.

"This idiot had no idea what any of this stuff is," Fumiko announced with disgust, reading the yellowed notebook pages over her sister's shoulder. Misaki nodded, turning the fragile page carefully.

"Doesn't look like it. Apparently it was all found somewhere in Okinawa in about nineteen thirty-two or so, but he's a bit vague on exactly where or when." She glanced at Aiko and Tamiko who were listening while digging through the rest of the jumbled mess of straw and artefacts in the remains of the crate, blowing aside large amounts of powdered wood and intermittently coughing and sneezing. "He says here he thinks it's all some sort of stuff for a warrior female cult of some sort, but a few pages back he more or less admitted he was just guessing wildly." Closing the notebook she dropped in onto a smaller crate and watched as her friends poked around.

"Not all that much help, then," Aiko mumbled, wiping sweat and sawdust off her face.

"Not really. Certainly not instructions or anything, you know, actually useful." Fumiko sighed, leaning on another box and also watching.

"You two could always help, you know," Tamiko noted rather irritably, shaking dust out of her hair, before turning to look at her friends. They exchanged a glance and moved to do as suggested. Shortly they had retrieved a number of odd items which were laid out on the floor next to the remains of the shipping crate, all four girls looking at them curiously.

"What are these for?" Fumiko asked somewhat pointlessly, picking up an intricate metal bracelet, one of over a dozen apparently identical ones in a pile, which looked like it was made of silver. She turned it over in her hands studying it. "It's very pretty."

"Perhaps it's not for anything? Maybe it's just jewellery..." Tamiko also picked one up, looking at it for a few seconds, then pushing it over her hand experimentally. She found it slipped easily up her forearm to sit a few centimetres behind her wrist, feeling oddly light, almost as if it wasn't there. Turning her arm she admired it with a small smile. "I like it. I wonder if it comes in gold?"

Sighing a little, Fumiko and Aiko exchanged a glance, while Misaki snickered, engrossed in examining a cylindrical device of some sort, which was perhaps the size of a lipstick tube but slightly longer. Shaking it a little she shook her head. "Not hollow, or at least it doesn't seem to have anything inside it. I wonder what it is?"

There were a few more similar devices, half a dozen others that were somewhat different, and one or two other things. Aiko picked up a small pendant which was in the form of a stylised pair of wings, hanging from a short chain that looked like it was meant to go around the neck. "I like this," she announced, staring at it. "It's pretty... and for some reason it kind of calls me." The other three looked at her and the golden pendant, then each other.

"Calls you?" Misaki asked curiously. The smaller girl nodded slowly, holding the thing at eye-level and gazing at it.

"Yes. I can't explain it." Feeling it gently, she looked at her friends. "Do you guys mind if I keep it?"

"Go ahead," Fumiko replied, looking around at the others. Nobody seemed to have an objection. Smiling, Aiko looked for a clasp or something similar on the chain, without success, then experimentally tried simply putting it over her head. None of them thought it would work as it looked too small but oddly enough it slipped into place without any problems. Settling the pendant against her half-bare chest Aiko grinned.

"How does it look?" she asked. All three girls inspected her critically.

"Not bad," Tamiko admitted. "I like it. I wonder if there's another one?" She poked around in the pile of miscellaneous odds and ends, only to sigh with mild disappointment. "Nope. Pity."

Laughing, Fumiko pointed to the small pile of dust and debris still on the floor that hadn't been disturbed yet. "Maybe there's some stuff left in there," she suggested. "More loot."

Grinning, Tamiko turned to the pile, stirring it around with her fingers. "Loot. Arr. Pirates and stuff."

"What's that?" The question came from Aiko, who pointed to the pile of dust.

"What's what?" Tamiko asked in turn, looking to where her friend was indicating. Aiko moved over and bent down.

"This," she said, brushing some debris away to reveal another spherical transparent object like the one that had got them into this situation in the first place, except pale yellow rather than red. The other three took a step back.

"Careful. It might go off bang like that last one and who knows what will happen then," Misaki cautioned, warily watching her friend, who looked up for a moment, then back at the ball.

"What's the worst that can happen now?" Aiko asked. Misaki winced, glancing at her sister and friend.

"I wish you hadn't said that," she muttered. "You know that means something horrible is going to happen next."

Looking both slightly worried and a little amused at her friend's words, Aiko stared at the yellow crystal sphere for a moment, chewing her lip in thought, before cautiously reaching out and poking it quickly with one finger, retracting the digit as fast as she could. Nothing happened.

She repeated the action a couple of times, then carefully picked the thing up. Turning around she found all three of her friends were standing back, Tamiko with her fingers in her ears. Sighing, she held it out, making them all flinch. "It's safe, look, nothing happened." Bouncing it in her palm she flipped it into the air and caught it again, giggling when Misaki stepped back a little more. "What are you afraid of?" she asked, amused, doing it again. "It's just a pretty yellow ball that... floats... in the air...?"

Her words trailed off as she stared in shock, the others doing the same, as the thing refused to drop back into her expectantly extended hand as it should have done, instead floating at the peak of the arc it had reached in a rather weird way. After a moment she retracted her hand and stepped back.

"I knew it," Misaki grumbled, watching wide-eyed. Fumiko looked at her, then met Aiko's eyes, before going back to watching the ball. Tamiko pushed her fingers deeper into her ears and closed her eyes. There was a pregnant pause for a few seconds.

- Greetings, Chosen Ones – a strange voice echoed in their minds, making them jump. Tamiko opened her eyes in shock, the fingers plugging her ears having had no effect, to stare at the ball with the rest of them. It was glowing slightly now. - If you are hearing this message the circumstances are dire. The red crystal has been activated and you are no doubt wondering what is going on. As soon as the current threat is dealt with, which I dearly hope you will be able to arrange, you can hear the rest of the message by touching this crystal. But now you must fight, there is no time to explain further and the fate of civilisation rests on your shoulders. Trust in yourselves and you will be successful – The voice fell silent.

All four teenagers looked at each other, dumbstruck. Seconds ticked past very slowly until eventually Fumiko asked, "What threat?"

"I think it means that demon woman," Misaki replied slowly, looking at the floating glowing yellow sphere. "It's some sort of recording and it doesn't know we've already killed her."

"We were probably meant to hear this first, then attack her," Aiko added, also watching the thing closely.

"Well, no one told me that," Fumiko sighed. She looked down at herself. "Or asked me if I wanted to be a magical girl in the first place. That's very rude."

"Too late now, I guess," her sister said. Looking around at the others, she stepped forward and reached cautiously out, tapping the sphere gently with her finger then jumping back. "May as well hear the rest."

Again there was a pause, then the voice returned, sounding pleased. - You have been successful against the immediate threat. My congratulations on your victory. I hope the casualties were few, but if you are mourning fallen comrades, be assured that their sacrifice was not in vain. Now, please pay attention, and I shall explain the purpose and usage of the tools accompanying this message for use in future battles -

"I'd be more interested in knowing who that woman was, what that horrible statue was, and how we get back to normal," Tamiko grumped. Aiko waved her to silence as the voice resumed.

- Protection of your identities is important to the work of the Chosen. To that end, you will find a number of bracelets which should be sufficient for your team with this message. They have on them a spell which will ensure anonymity under all circumstances I have been able to conceive. To activate them, push a small amount of your natural power into the spell. Deactivation is performed in a similar manner. Be warned, the shielding effect will be removed for anyone who is present during the activation or anyone wearing one of the bracelets. They are as close to indestructible as I have been able to make them, will protect themselves from observation, and should be of help to you. I would suggest that you wear them always -

Raising her arm Tamiko studied the bracelet she was wearing, looking puzzled, then glanced up. "Natural power?" she echoed, confused. "What does it mean?"

"No idea. Shh." Aiko went back to listening after a quick look at her red-headed friend, who seemed mildly irritated now, but also listened to the voice from the crystal.

- The larger cylindrical device is a weapon, which can be used at varying power levels to defeat an opponent at range. Again, you provide the power to it and trigger it with an act of will. You can adjust the power from a mere light to a damaging blast of energy. I cannot help you with your aim so I would suggest that you should practice as much as possible – Studying the small cylinder she was still holding Misaki looked intrigued. Fumiko got a worried feeling, she knew her sister well. If that thing really was a magical weapon of some sort...

- The smaller cylindrical device is used to dispose of a defeated enemy should this become necessary. As with the other tools, activation is a matter of concentration and power. It will not work on living creatures or anything that was never alive but all else will be disintegrated, although the process is not instantaneous – All of the girls looked at the small pile of rod-like artefacts, then each other. "It... dissolves bodies?" Fumiko asked faintly. "Yuck. That's horrible."

"But it could be useful," her sister noted, turning her head to look at the remains of the demonic woman a few metres away. Fumiko followed her gaze and was forced to agree.

"Is that it?" Aiko asked curiously and with a degree of anger in her voice, when no further explanation seemed to be available from the yellow sphere, which was still floating gently in front of her. "How do we change back? And what does this thing do?" She tapped the pendant on her chest, frowning. "Hey, you, floaty yellow ball, tell us the rest." The crystal ignored her.

"I don't think it can answer questions," Misaki commented, watching the thing curiously.

"But I have lots of them," her brunette friend complained.

"So do I," Tamiko put in, her hands on her hips. "I never signed up for this! That thing said 'future battles.' What future battles? I didn't want this battle!" She glared at the crystal with annoyance.

"And what the hell is Natural Power?" Fumiko asked. Tamiko had raised a good point with that question. "Does it mean magic? Why does it think we have magic?"

"I have no idea," her sister replied, sighing. "But all this has to have something to do with magic, or else we're all nuts and dreaming it." Reaching out she pinched her sister on the shoulder quite hard, provoking a yell and a glare. "Nope, looks real to me."

"Well, I'm not satisfied with my experience," Aiko grouchily snarked, glaring at the yellow sphere. "I want more answers. Come on, talk, you glowing little idiot." She reached out and flicked it with a finger, making a sound like a wind-chime.

- Greetings, Chosen Ones – it responded immediately.

"Yes, we've heard this bit," she replied irritably, grabbing it and giving it a good shake. "Come on, tell me something new. How do we change back!?" Letting go she tossed it into the air where it once more floated, gently rotating and making small buzzing sounds.

"Um, I think you might have broken it, Aiko," Tamiko said uneasily, staring. "Or made it mad."

"It's just a recording," Misaki remarked, also watching.

"Talk, damn it!" Aiko was almost shouting, glaring at the ball from a few centimetres away. It settled down, no longer humming, but made no response. Sighing, she flicked it again. "Stupid recording magical floating ball."

- … is used for immediate transportation between widely separated places – the ball stated in a conversational tone, making her jump. - The user must concentrate on the destination and supply the activation power, which will trigger the process. The number of people that can be transported will increase with practice and growing power level. Be warned that it is a severe drain on the user and should not be... - The voice trailed off again, making her look confused.

"What's it talking about now?" Tamiko enquired, puzzled. Aiko shrugged.

"I think it's broken," she admitted. The red-head sighed, giving her a look of exasperation.

"That's what I just said," she responded. "It didn't like being shaken. Remember what happened to that phone your Mom had when you shook it like that?"

Nodding slowly, Aiko looked embarrassed. "But this is a magical ball, not a phone. No moving parts." She stared hopefully at the thing for a moment. "No parts at all."

"Maybe its battery ran down?" Fumiko suggested half-jokingly. Everyone looked at her. She flushed a little. "Don't look at me like that, I have no idea how magic works. Or batteries."

"I don't think it's battery-powered," her sister sighed. Inspecting the yellow crystal ball for a moment, she added, "I think it's just really old. Maybe whatever does power it is running out?"

"So, like I said, it's batteries are running down?" Fumiko said triumphantly. The other girl looked at her, shook her head, opened her mouth to say something, then gave up.

- Chosen Ones – the ball commented, not very helpfully. They all glared at it. - reat Honou – the thing added, making Aiko shake her head in despair.

"It's completely useless," she complained, grabbing it again and studying it closely. As she held it the crystal glowed a little brighter, making them aware that it had slowly dimmed as it had been hanging there.

- ood luck in your fight against the forces arrayed against you. Seek out allies, defeat your enemies and those of your community, protect the innocent. You have my best wishes. Farewell and... – it suddenly and loudly said, making her yelp and toss it towards Misaki, who grabbed at it but missed. This time the ball didn't float, instead dropping in an arc to bounce off the floor with a loud crack, rolling to a stop a few metres away. They all watched it warily in case something else happened, but all that did was that the glow went out. After a few seconds Misaki walked over and somewhat gingerly picked the thing up, looking at it, then turned to her friends.

"Well, it's definitely broken now," she announced, holding it up so they could see the large crack in the artefact. "I don't think it's going to tell us anything else."

"Oh, for god's sake, this is ridiculous," Fumiko exploded, gesturing wildly at the various things lying around, the bodies, and the overall devastation. "Thanks, sis. I told you going through that door was a stupid idea. Now look at what's happened!"

Misaki followed her eyes, then looked back at her sister. After a moment a weird grin flitted across her face. "It's not boring, though, is it?"

Fumiko glared while Aiko and Tamiko helplessly started laughing. After a few seconds, she had no choice but to join them. They laughed until they were nearly crying, feeling much better when they finally ran down.

"You are such a pain in the ass," Aiko said to her friend, shaking her head. Misaki grinned again.

"Which is why you stay friends with me." The brunette nodded, smiling.

"But we still don't know how to change back, or what we're going to do about all this." Tamiko sighed a little, indicating the entire room as the problem. She glanced at her watch which oddly enough was still on her wrist despite everything else she had been wearing having vanished. "And we've been away for over an hour so far, Mrs Genda will be furious."

"She probably hasn't even noticed yet," Fumiko replied, "you know what she's like. If you don't stand out for some reason she practically ignores you."

Looking down at herself, Tamiko said, "I somehow think this will count as standing out."

"We need our clothes back," Aiko stated firmly. Glaring at the ball Misaki was holding, she added, "I wish that damn thing had told us how to change back."

"So do I," the taller girl said, holding it up, before putting it on a nearby crate. "But it didn't so we're just going to have to figure it out ourselves." They were all silent for a few seconds, exchanging glances.

"How?" Fumiko asked, verbalising the question they all had at the forefront of their minds. Her sister sagged a little, shaking her head.

"I have no idea."

There was dead silence for some while as they all thought hard. Eventually Misaki turned to Aiko, looking like she'd had a thought. "How did you make those weapons vanish?"

Returning her gaze, Aiko studied her friend for a moment, then pulled one of the kama from nowhere. "Like that, only in the other direction," she remarked. Misaki sighed a bit.

"Very helpful. Can you be a little more specific?"

Frowning, the brunette slowly said, "I'm not sure. I sort of... could feel that I could do it? I can't really explain it. But it's kind of a matter of visualising putting them into a sort of invisible pocket, I guess." She made the weapon vanish and reappear a few times. "It was hard the first time but it's pretty easy now."

"Hmm." Misaki stared at what her friend was doing, as did her sister and Tamiko, then moved to pick up the naginata she'd leaned against a crate, studying it for a few seconds. With an expression of concentration she waved it a little, looking dissatisfied. "How do I...?" There was some more waving and some odd expressions, until rather suddenly she was no longer holding the thing. Staring at her empty hands she smiled, raising her eyes to her sister's flabbergasted expression. "Aha!"

"Can you get it back?" Tamiko asked curiously.

Seconds later Misaki grinned, holding the weapon out in front of her. "Looks like it." She made it vanish again, more smoothly this time. "I'm thinking that's what the ball meant by concentration and power. Perhaps that's how all this stuff works? We need to picture what it does and concentrate on making it do it." She glanced at Aiko. "Did you feel like there is something inside you being used up when you make those vanish and come back?"

Aiko nodded slowly, looking bemused. "I think so, yes. Not very much, and it seems to be coming back slowly. But every time I do this...," the kama in her left hand vanished, "I can feel it go down again." She glanced around, slightly puzzled. "What is it?"

Fumiko had realised what her sister apparently had. "Natural power. Magic. That must be it. You're feeling your magic being used."

"Oh, wow," the petite girl finally said after staring for a second or two. "That's... incredible."

Picking up the cylinder which she'd been toying with before she dropped it to retrieve the crystal ball Misaki inspected it with a speculative expression, before glancing around. Fumiko watched her warily. "Um, that's the one that's a weapon, isn't it?"

"Yep."

Looking slightly excited, Misaki pointed what seemed to be the dangerous end of the thing at a crate a few metres away. Fumiko exchanged glances with her friends, before all three of them hastily took cover behind something solid. There was silence for a few seconds, broken only by Misaki muttering to herself quietly. The other three girls exchanged nervous glances, Tamiko with her fingers in her ears again.

"Maybe it doesn't work like that?" Aiko said after a while. Fumiko looked at her, then cautiously leaned to the side to peer around the crate at her sister, just in time to blink furiously as a bright flash of light came from the device the teenager was holding, leaving a streak across her vision. A loud bang sounded from the other side of the room followed by a whoop of glee from her sister.

"YES!" Misaki cried, dancing a dance of happiness for a moment. "It works!"

"Holy crap!" Aiko yelped, rushing around the crate they'd been cowering behind to stare at the target Misaki had aimed at, which now had a fist-sized hole in it, the wood charred and smoking. "Well, shit," she added in disgusted irritation, her hands curled into fists and resting on her hips. "We could have used that damn thing when that crazy woman was trying to kill us." She glared at the broken yellow ball lying on a box a couple of metres away. "Why couldn't you have mentioned that thing first, hmm?"

There was no answer.

"I can't work out why no one has come down to find out what all the noise is," Aiko muttered, watching as Misaki and Tamiko used the little body-disintegrators to clear away the evidence of their presence and fight, including the liquefied body of the short man. They'd had something of an argument about this, but in the end had agreed that the less evidence the better. It had taken some experimentation on the dead demonic woman but eventually they'd worked out how the things functioned.

A blue glow was somehow making the bodies, and the puddle, crumble into a fine dust that seemed to evaporate slowly, leaving no trace at all. The process was completely silent, oddly enough, there wasn't even any smell. Glancing at her friend, Fumiko nodded for a moment. "Probably a good thing. This would be difficult to explain." She went back to fiddling with the clothing she was wearing, something she was beginning to think of as a uniform. The narrow belt that went around her waist and pulled in the scraps of fabric comprising the mid-part of it had a number of places she'd been playing with, trying to work out the purpose of the loops.

"Hey, look at this," she abruptly said, smiling, having discovered that the weapon rod and the disintegrator fitted two of them perfectly. "So that's what they're for."

"Guess so," her friend commented, glancing at her, then going back to watching the other two. Soon they were finished.

"Right, that's done," Tamiko exclaimed, looking relieved. "That was disgusting. Can we go now?"

"Go where?" Aiko asked. She gestured at herself with annoyance. "We're still wearing this outfit, we'll stand out like idiots. Assuming we don't just get arrested on the spot for indecent exposure. Not to mention it's pretty cold out."

"Well, we can't stay here," Misaki said, joining them. "We've been lucky but sooner or later someone is going to find out. We can't hide the damage like those bodies. Look at it." She waved a hand to indicated the dozens of destroyed or damaged crates and boxes. Her friends looked around and were forced to admit that the traces left of their battle were anything but subtle.

"We need to change back," Fumiko sighed. "Anybody have any luck yet?" There was a round of head-shaking.

"I've tried everything I can think of and nothing yet," Aiko mumbled.

"If it wasn't for the clothing I could get used to this," Misaki laughed, picking up a box that must have weighed two or three hundred kilos without vast effort. They'd discovered a little while ago that not only were their reflexes much faster they were several times stronger than they had been. There also seemed to be some sort of enhanced healing going on, or significantly greater toughness, if not both, as the bruises she'd developed from being thrown against the wall by the demon had already faded almost entirely.

"Well, don't," her sister snapped, "we need to get back to normal then try to pretend this never happened. I for one don't want to have to fight demons all the time. Mom would never let us hear the end of it if a demon knocked on the door and wanted a fight."

Giggling slightly hysterically, Tamiko shook her head. "I don't think they come and look for you even if you are a magical girl, I think you have to look for them."

"Doesn't seem to stop it based on the news," her friend scowled. "There are magical girl fights all the time. Minato is full of them, you know that. They had to close the school only last week for a couple of days when that blonde and her friend blew up half the art department going after something horrible."

"Maybe we can just stay out of it?" Aiko asked hopefully.

"I sure hope so," the taller girl replied. "That's what I'm planning on doing for sure."

They spent a few more minutes trying various internal mental exercises, trying to work out the trigger for the magical girl power up, until suddenly Tamiko got a weird expression. "Oh. I think I see." The other three all looked at her as she went through some odd mental contortions, ending up smiling. They all felt something indefinable change. "I think it worked."

"You don't look any different," Aiko noted, pointing. The redhead looked down at herself, then frowned, aggrieved.

"Hey, where are my clothes?" she demanded. "I like that skirt, Mom gave it to me on my birthday." Feeling her 'uniform' she scowled blackly.

"Did it turn off the magic?" Misaki asked curiously. Looking up, Tamiko stared at her for a moment, then tried to pick up the same box her friend had been showing off with, finding herself unable to move it at all.

"Looks like it," she reported. "I don't feel any stronger than normal." She tried jumping as hard as she could, managing a fairly respectable height, but only what a normal young teenaged girl could do.

"That's something," Fumiko remarked, watching with interest.

"It's not my clothes, though, is it?" Tamiko growled. "I want my clothes back."

"So do the rest of us," Aiko said calmly. "Don't get worked up." The pair of them had a brief argument, ending when the auburn-haired girl stomped off into a corner and mumbled to herself for a little while. By the time she came back the others had worked out the same mental trigger she had, all of them managing to power up and down without much problem.

"OK, so we can turn it off, but it looks like it ate our clothes," Fumiko mused. "Annoying, but it's heading in the right direction, I guess. So what do we do now?" She was still nervous but managing to hold it together. As long as she didn't think about the earlier fight she could deal with it. The fact that there were no dead demons or liquid corpses cluttering up the place helped a lot.

"We need to find something else to wear, then get back to the class before someone notices we're missing and calls the police," her sister replied, looking thoughtful. "I'm amazed that hasn't happened yet."

"Maybe it has?" Tamiko had wandered back, looking less annoyed, her normal cheerful demeanour reasserting itself. "We wouldn't know, down here." They exchanged glances, it was a good point.

"No way to know and nothing we can do about it anyway," Fumiko's sister said after a moment, which was true enough. "Let's see about getting out of here and finding some clothes at least."

"Where?" They all looked at Misaki, then each other.

"There was a sporting goods shop just down the street, we walked past it on the way here," Fumiko said after a moment. "It looked like it was shut, though."

"That will do," her sister said in satisfaction.

"But it's shut," Tamiko protested. "And I don't have any money, it was in my pocket and it's gone wherever my clothes went." Casting her a long-suffering look, Misaki walked over to one of the larger crates and casually ripped the front off it with little effort.

"Shut isn't a problem," she commented, grinning.

"That's breaking and entering," Fumiko said, worried.

"And stealing," her sister agreed. "We don't have a lot of choice, though."

Again, they couldn't pick a hole in this argument.

"What about all the other stuff?" Fumiko asked, looking towards where they'd made a pile of their finds. Tamiko had even sifted through the dust on the floor again to check they hadn't missed anything.

"Take everything, it might come in handy," Aiko ordered. Looking around, she spotted a canvas bag sticking out of one of the wrecked crates, grabbing it and emptying out the contents onto the floor. Small pieces of smashed pottery clattered to the ground. "We can put it all in here. But we should all put one of the bracelets on first." Soon they were wearing the purported disguise spells with the remaining haul safely stored away, the bag now in Misaki's hand, heading back towards where they thought the way out might be.

"Damn it, I wish you hadn't got us all lost, sis," Fumiko grumbled, as they found another dead end. "This place is huge. You'd think someone would put up signs or something. I'm surprised there aren't dried up dead people all over the place who were trying to find their way out."

Laughing quietly to herself, Aiko pointed down the corridor they hadn't tried yet. "It has to be that way, we've tried everything else. Come on." A few minutes later they found a closed door through which they could faintly hear what sounded like people talking in the distance.

"It's not the way we came," Tamiko noted.

"Who cares as long as it gets us out of here?" Fumiko mumbled. She watched as her sister put her ear to the door, listening, then dropped to the ground and tried to see under it. "What on earth are you doing?"

"Trying to make sure we don't walk into the middle of a crowd of people of course," her sister replied absently, squinting into the crack under the door. "I can see people about fifty metres away, I think. It looks like this opens outside the museum, maybe around the side somewhere. I think we're clear." Hopping to her feet she tried the door handle. "Locked. Fantastic."

Pulling and twisting she exerted herself, smiling when after a short struggle the lock submitted to her enhanced strength with a muted cracking sound that still made the other three twitch. Putting her finger to her lips she waited until the others nodded, then cautiously pulled the door open a little and peered out. Opening it a little wider when nothing happened she stuck her head out, looked quickly around, then retreated back into the corridor. "Looks clear," she whispered. "There are a few people way over to the left but I can't see anyone else and no one is looking this way. Everyone got their bracelets on?" Her sister and friends nodded, checking their wrists. "And activated?"

"I think so," Fumiko said in a low voice. "How can we tell?" This made her sister stop and think, before shrugging.

"No idea, except to see what happens." She looked out again, both ways, then hissed, "Come on, go right and run, we need to get to that shop." Zipping out the door she legged it along the wall, the others following with alacrity, finding they could run at a formerly impossible speed. Within a very short time they had cleared the immediate area and taken cover behind a parked truck a few hundred metres away.

"Well, so far so good," Aiko remarked.

"Where are we?" Tamiko asked. They all looked around.

"It's the back of the museum, I think, not the side, so we need to go that way," Fumiko finally said having studied the terrain. She pointed. "The shop should be to the left about two hundred metres when we get to the road."

"We need to see if there is some sort of back entrance," her sister said. "We can hardly just kick the front door in, people will notice."

"OK. Look for an alleyway or something, I think shops often have them for loading," Aiko suggested. They all took a deep breath each, once again checked for bystanders, then ran.

"I'm not sure we should be doing this," Tamiko said in a low voice, looking around. Aiko glanced at her, then went back to studying the skylight. They had managed to not only find the alleyway that led to the rear of the sporting goods shop but a fire escape up to the roof, which they'd immediately made use of, reasoning that people were even less likely to look up.

"We don't have much choice as far as I can see," her friend replied. She looked at Misaki, who nodded. Fumiko listened from where she was keeping watch near the fire escape. "Right, let's do it." The short brunette grabbed the edge of the metal-framed skylight and heaved, managing to rip it out of its frame without too much trouble, although she was flexing her hands uncomfortably when she finished. "That should be enough." Sticking her head through the opening she looked around, upside down, while Misaki and Tamiko held her legs.

"Anyone in there?" the red-head asked in a whisper.

"Nope. But I can see a camera," Aiko reported, before pulling herself out again. "What do we do about that?"

Looking around, Misaki got up, walked over to the place the power line entered the building on a pair of ceramic insulators and studied it, then backed up a couple of metres. Pulling out her pole-arm, she swung it at the wires entering the building, severing them with a crunching sound and a momentary flash of electricity. "See if the camera is still on," she suggested, putting the weapon away again. Once more Aiko leaned in, Tamiko holding on, then re-emerged smiling.

"The little red light is out now," she said. "I think that worked."

"OK, let's find something to wear and get back as quick as we can," Fumiko sighed, not happy about all the crimes they suddenly seemed to be committing. The brunette slipped easily through the skylight, followed by the other girls. "I hope there's a shower in here as well," she added wearily as she brought up the rear.

"Where have you four been?" Kiku hissed, glancing sideways as her class-mates sidled up to the back of the group of schoolgirls. "You're lucky old Grumpy didn't notice, you've been gone for ages." She turned to inspect them more closely. "Hey, what are you wearing? That's not what you had on earlier." A couple of girls turned to watch as she looked suspiciously at the four teenagers.

"We had an accident and had to buy new clothes," Aiko lied placidly, glancing warningly at her friends, who kept their mouths shut.

"Was it Tamiko again?" Kiku asked knowingly, looking maliciously amused. The red-head sighed, opening her mouth to deny wrong-doing, only to subside as Misaki kicked her ankle.

"No, it was just an accident."

"Miss Maedam! Please be quiet and pay attention," the teacher snapped, looking over at them. She didn't seem to have any issue other than the talking. Fumiko and her friends exchanged a glance, Misaki shifting the backpack full of priceless magical artefacts on her shoulder, while her sister held onto the one with the four 'uniforms' in it.

And it was as easy as that.

"Oh, god."

Fumiko winced at the sound of vomiting, holding her sister's hair back as she threw up again. Spitting into the bowl, Misaki wiped her mouth, then raised a white face to her younger sister. "What the hell did we do?" she whispered. "We killed someone! Then broke into a store and stole clothes."

"We didn't have any choice in either thing," Fumiko soothed the other girl, holding her as she shook. "You and Aiko kept Tamiko and me from panicking and got us out of there. We're both proud of you. It's over now, so we can just forget it and get back to doing normal things."

Staring hopefully at her sister, Misaki nodded, before whirling back and emptying her stomach of things she'd eaten days ago. Fumiko kept holding her as she retched.

Walking along the street with Aiko and Misaki one on either side of her, Fumiko gestured, the silver bracelet she was wearing, like all her friends, glinting in the sun. They'd all decided they made nice items of jewellery if nothing else. "It was about this big and had black and pink fur, I swear. It just ran out between me and Tamiko and charged off down the street with that magical girl who has those two swords chasing it and swearing at the top of her voice. She was slashing at it and hitting everything around her. I don't know what it did but she was really mad."

"Weird. That's the fourth time a magical girl or a demon has nearly run into you in the last week, isn't it?"

"Fifth time, the fourth was that little scaly thing that fell off the roof and nearly landed on me," the girl sighed. "It was holding a thermos of all things. I just stared at it, I couldn't think what else to do, it sort of bowed to me, then ran away. It said something but I have no idea what, I've never heard anything like it before."

"There's something very odd going on," Misaki said thoughtfully. "None of us have ever seen a magical girl in real life until... well, what happened... or a demon, for that matter, now they're jumping out of the woodwork at us two or three times a week."

"You don't think it has something to do with... that... do you?" Aiko asked, looking nervous. They exchanged a glance. "I thought we were staying out of it." She inspected her companions. "Have either of you... You know...?"

Fumiko shook her head. "Not me. We hid everything in the attic, I haven't gone near it since." They exchanged a glance, then both turned to inspect Misaki, who was quiet even for her. The other girl was looking away from them resolutely.

"Sis?" Fumiko studied her sister suspiciously. "You haven't... experimented... have you?" Misaki looked at her and quickly away, going slightly pink. Fumiko sighed.

"I wanted to see if it still worked," her sister finally admitted.

"Does it?" she asked, not sure she really wanted to hear the answer.

"Yep." Misaki sighed a little. "I lost another good outfit and now I have two of those horrible uniforms."

Giggling at her expression, Aiko said, "Well, I suppose it was a good experiment. But I don't think it could be attracting demons, if it was only once."

The three girls stopped dead as an odd sensation swept across them, making them look around curiously. Seconds later a point of light appeared a metre off the pavement a little further along the street, glowing a weird electric blue, then stretched into a vertical column. With a crackling noise it abruptly developed into a defined shape, one they'd seen on the news a couple of times, forming a rip in reality they all recognised.

It was a portal, exactly like the ones demons came through.

Demons much like the one that stepped out of the tear in the universe and looked around, apparently curiously. They stared in shock at the thing as it inspected them, looked around again, then strolled over. Looking up at the two metre high monstrosity they gaped, too startled to do anything else. The thing studied what seemed to be a sheet of paper it was holding in one clawed hand, a sheet they could all see seemed to have some weird sort of writing on it, then said something unintelligible in a deep voice, apparently a question. It waited as they continued to stare. After a few seconds, it repeated the sentence, with no more result than previously. Lowering the paper it held it in front of them, pointing to something on it. Slightly unwillingly, Aiko looked at it, recognising what seemed for some bizarre reason to be an address in neat Kanji in the middle of the mess of odd symbols.

She exchanged a wondering glance with her friends, both sisters staring back wide-eyed, then looked up at the huge demon. After a long moment she pointed off to the left. It made a sound that seemed to convey satisfaction, nodded oddly to them, then turned and lumbered off in the indicated direction. They watched until it rounded the corner a hundred metres away, before exchanging glances again. Returning their gaze to the portal which was still gently crackling away to itself they stared at it. Various passers-by who had witnessed the event were still running.

Thirty seconds later, before any of them had recovered enough to speak, two female figures dropped of the roof of the building next to them, studying the portal for a moment, then looking around quickly. "Which way did it go?" the brunette girl, one of a matched pair dressed in what looked like a rather elaborate green and yellow bikini with attached skirt, demanded of them. She was holding a pair of swords in her hands and looked irritated.

Her companion, who was wielding a bow and arrow, the arrow-head glowing pink, shook her head, her pale blue shoulder-length hair moving around then settling back perfectly as if by magic. Which it probably was, Fumiko thought to herself. "Be polite, Mari," she reproved the other girl. Turning to the three frozen teenagers, she asked calmly, "Did you see a demon come out of that portal?" All of them nodded.

"Did you see which way it went?"

They nodded again. Misaki was the one that pointed this time. The blue-haired girl looked in the direction she was indicating, from which a certain number of pedestrians were rapidly retreating, then back to them. "Thank you. Please enjoy the day." Both girls ran off at high speed after the demon.

Silence fell as they found themselves alone on the street except for the portal which was still contentedly crackling away quietly. They looked at each other, then the apparition, before very cautiously edging past it and continuing on their way to school.

Several minutes passed without any of them speaking.

"OK, you're right, something weird is going on," Fumiko eventually admitted, twitching at the sound of a loud roar from somewhere behind them. She resolutely didn't look.

They stopped and stared for several seconds, before Tamiko closed her eyes and shook her head. "Oh, no, not again," she groaned. Beside her, Aiko sighed a little.

"What is this, the third time so far?" she asked rhetorically. Fumiko nodded, inspecting the portal in the middle distance and the demon that was in the process of forcibly opening a parked van for some reason known only to it. People were screaming and running, although with an air of resignation, more as if this was what they felt was expected than out of any real sense of danger. This sort of event was depressingly common in the general Minato area and in this specific locale particularly, as borne mute witness to by the number of damaged buildings visible even from where they were.

Oddly enough, most of the damage had been done by the various magical girls rather than the demons they went for, although it was mostly blamed on the demons by the reporters who covered the events. As they watched in fact the local TV outside broadcast truck drew up at a safe distance, deploying a reporter and cameraman who began doing a live broadcast.

"I'm getting tired of this," Fumiko muttered. Aiko nodded emphatically.

"So am I." She looked around expectantly. "Where are they?" she asked after a few seconds had passed.

"Who?" Tamiko asked, looking at her.

"The magical girls," her friend responded. She waved at the demon which was peeling the roof off the van with every sign of enjoyment. "You know how it goes, a demon turns up, a magical girl or girls arrive soon after, a fight happens, everyone goes home happy. We watch, then go home as well."

"Oh. Right." The red-head glanced around herself, then looked back at her friends. "Can't see anyone." They waited, sitting on a low wall, while the demon trashed the van, then moved on to a rather expensive sports car, whose apparent owner screamed in anguish as he watched the otherworldly creature experimentally taste the leather seat on the driver's side before forcibly removing it with a screech of distressed metal.

Nothing much else in the way of a magical response happened. Aiko looked at her watch impatiently, mumbling something to herself, then growled. "Damn it, I want to go home and that thing is in the way," she complained. Misaki looked at her, then back at the demon. Then turned to look at her sister and the other girl, before returning her gaze to Aiko. An eyebrow went up. Aiko met her friend's eyes speculatively. "We could..."

"Perhaps we should?" Misaki watched the demon some more. Fumiko and Tamiko exchanged glances.

"Um, what are you thinking about, guys?" the red-head asked slowly. Aiko and Misaki turned to them and grinned.

"Oh, no. Not again!" Fumiko jumped to her feet and backed away. "No!"

"Come on, why not? It's not going to go away, you know, all this stupidity over the last couple of weeks or so proves that." Aiko waved at the demon again. "No one is doing anything about it, so why don't we?"

"Because it's stupid and dangerous and we have no idea what we're doing," her friend retorted angrily. She looked at her sister, who was grinning in a weird way. "It's insane."

"You know we're going to end up doing it anyway, don't you?" Misaki asked. After a long moment, Fumiko nodded, sighing heavily, then followed her sister and the shorter girl as they headed into a nearby alley. Tamiko watched them go, turned back to look at the demon, then ran after them.

"Hey, wait for me," she called.

"Ow."

"Hold still, let me have a look." Fumiko grabbed her friend by the chin and forcibly held her head still as she carefully examined the petite brunette's black eye. "It looks painful but it's fading already. A little makeup and no one will know. It'll probably be gone by tomorrow."

"It's damn painful," Aiko muttered, gently touching her face.

"You should have ducked," Misaki said, looking over from where she was futilely trying to tie her torn uniform back together.

"You should have aimed better," the other girl snarled. "Who throws a concrete block at a demon, for god's sake?" Misaki grinned, shrugging.

"It worked, didn't it? The thing dropped you and came after me instead."

"It wouldn't have been holding me upside down by my ankles if you hadn't pissed it off so much in the first place," the other girl grumbled.

"I didn't know it was so tough," her friend said apologetically. "I thought I could cut its head off like I did with that demon woman."

"Instead you only nicked it and left me in the retaliation zone when you ran away," the brunette sighed. "We really need to practice team tactics for next time." She looked down at her clothing. "And remember to pack the uniforms. That's the second set of clothing I've lost to this damn magic."

"Third for me," Misaki said, shaking her head.

"I wonder if we could stick the uniform into wherever the weapons go," Tamiko asked curiously, thinking about it. Misaki grinned again, handing her a chocolate bar that she hadn't had in her hand until right then.

"Probably. It seems able to store small amounts of stuff." She looked amused as the others all stared at her. "I experimented a bit."

"So, what, we can get at that part without the whole magic power up thing?" Fumiko asked, slightly astonished.

"Yep. I can't seem to do anything else without the full change but that part is possible. Still can't get the weapons either." She produced another bar and unwrapped it. "But it's good for a few useful things. The uniforms don't take up much room."

"I wish you'd thought of that before I lost my clothes again," Fumiko told her irritably. "Now we have to sneak in past Mom. Anyway, what do you mean, next time," she added, turning to look at Aiko.

The brunette smiled back. "I mean, next time we fight a demon, of course. We're a team, we need to learn to work together."

"What the hell makes you think there'll be a next time?" Fumiko demanded, jumping to her feet on the flat roof of the building they'd ended up on after the demon had pushed off back through its portal, looking more annoyed than defeated.

A crash from below them interrupted Aiko's response and made Misaki shuffle over to the edge of the roof and look down two stories. "Hey, guys, want to stop a robbery?" she asked, watching whatever was going on down on the street.

Aiko went over and watched with her for a moment, before looking back over her shoulder. Her eyebrows went up enquiringly, she grinned, then both she and Misaki jumped over the edge. Sighing heavily, Fumiko exchanged a look with her remaining friend, slowly stood, then followed them, Tamiko behind her.

"We must be nuts," she mumbled as she fell to the street, landing on a large man in a mask carrying a baseball bat, who seemed somewhat surprised by this turn of events.

"The team of four young girls seems quite new, but is so far proving surprisingly effective," the reporter said, looking into the camera. "In the last four months they have intervened in over a dozen demon incursions and at least twenty-six crimes of various types, ranging from simple muggings to an attempted bank robbery. None of the young ladies seems to wish to be interviewed and as you can see from this recording of the most recent event our on the scene camera caught last night, they appear to possess some form of magic that makes them impossible to identify in video or still photographs. It would also seem to prevent people remembering their faces. None of the witnesses we interviewed could give any description more detailed than 'very young females with no clothes sense', which while amusing is not particularly helpful."

The clip now playing showed four young women jumping around like lunatics near a pair of feathery demons which looked somewhat worried, both of them wielding a sort of staff with glowing ends. The battle was fairly short, the demons retreating through a portal moments later, which immediately imploded. The girls seemed to talk together for a few seconds, then ran across the road and rapidly scaled the front of a bank, jumping acrobatically from window ledge to window ledge, with the camera panning up to follow them, until they vanished from sight over the roof of the four story edifice.

"We will be following the exploits of the new players in Minato with interest," the reporter finished, as the image cut back to him. "We wish them all the best luck in their endeavours at protecting the community. Now, back to the studio for the weather." Fumiko's father turned off the TV, sitting down at the table and looking mildly amused.

"They're getting younger and younger, these magical girls," he commented, picking up his chopsticks.

"Even at that age they should know better than to wear such scandalous costumes," his wife said, serving him some noodles. Fumiko glanced at her sister, who had a small private smile. "Their parents must be mortified. Or possibly just hideously irresponsible. I'd never let a daughter of mine run around in public dressed like that." Misaki made a small sound of amusement, then covered it by coughing violently.

"Sorry, Mom, a noodle went down the wrong way," she said apologetically to their mother when she looked concerned. Fumiko hid her own grin. The magical girl stuff was beginning to grow on her.

After supper, she and her sister retreated to the room they shared. "Aiko says we should meet her later so we can look around that new apartment block that's being built over by the school," Misaki said, causing her to nod. "She thinks it might be a good idea to get used to the layout in case we need to chase something in there."

"She's probably right." Lying on her bed, Fumiko stared out the window, smiling a little. "I'd never have believe that your curiosity would end up with this happening," she added after a few seconds. Looking over at her from her similar position on her own bed, Misaki grinned.

"I told you it wouldn't be boring."

Fumiko started laughing helplessly.

A little while later, as she was recovering, their mother tapped on the door, then opened it, handing her the cordless phone. "It's your friend Aiko," she explained. "She seems excited." Leaving the room she closed the door.

Raising the phone to her ear while looking at her sister, Fumiko said, "Hello?"

"Fumiko! Guess where I am?" Aiko's breathless voice came distantly to her. Puzzled, she thought for a moment.

"I don't know. Where are you?" Misaki sat up curiously.

"I'm in Paris!"

"Paris!?" Fumiko pulled the phone from her ear and stared incredulously at it, before replacing it. Misaki was listening intently. "Why are you in Paris? No, better question, how did you get to Paris in the first place? You were in school only two hours ago."

"I found out what that pendant thing does," her friend's excited voice said. "It's amazing. It lets me teleport!"

"...teleport?" Fumiko echoed weakly after several seconds. Misaki looked astounded, but began smiling slowly.

"Yes! I was in my bedroom, then I was here. OK, I threw up a lot, but I got here just like that." Aiko sounded very happy. "Hold on, I think I've recharged enough." Looking at the phone, Fumiko wondered what that meant, then screamed as her friend appeared with no warning in the middle of the bedroom, grinning like an idiot.

"This is amazing," she said cheerfully. Her heart pounding, Fumiko kept staring at her short friend, still holding the phone to her ear. Eventually she carefully lowered it, pressed the disconnection button with a trembling finger, then dropped it to the bed beside her.

"Yep. Not boring at all," Misaki remarked with glee. All Fumiko could do was stare.

Their lives were never the same after that trip to the museum. But, and this is the important part, it was never boring.