Force of Magic
By Ewen "Blackbird" Cluney

    Force of Magic is an original story, which takes place in the
Magical World setting, originally created for the Thrash RPG. The short
explanation is that it's a world where in the past 20 years or so
magical girls have run rampant, as have their enemies, the evil
youma. This is but the latest chapter in the conflict between the
Magical Kingdoms and the Dark Kingdoms which has spanned
countless millennia. However, the levels of collateral damage
(especially following the Magical War, in which two factions of
magical girls clashes in a deadly conflict) have led many people to hate
both sides of this ongoing war, and a few have even
taken to hunting down magical girls.
    This story concerns one Haruko Hayashi, a resident of Tokyo and
newly recruited magical girl, in service to the Magical
Kingdom of Chrysalia. It is precisely the opposite of your average
magical girl anime. This story is intentionally very dark,
featuring a protagonist who is nearly overcome with her own doubts,
caught between uncaring superiors and deadly foes.

Chapter 1

     Haruko couldn't believe she was doing this. Even as her hand 
slammed down on the counter, the feelings of regret that had been 
building made her wish she could forget the whole thing. But she 
couldn't. Not now.
     "These charms are a scam!" she yelped. "I've had *bad* luck 
ever since I got one!"
     The old crone who presided over the tiny fortune-telling 
shop trembled in rage. She'd had a good business going, with her 
"True Love Charms." Piyo had, however, told Haruko that this was 
just a front for the youma, and the little paper charms served to 
drain the life energy from those who carried them. Haruko was 
thrown to the ground when the old woman's gnarled knuckles struck 
her temple. The pain was a terrible spear, stabbing into her 
head, but somehow she managed to get to her feet. With a slight 
panic, the throng of schoolgirls that had filled the shop 
dissipated.
     Before long, the shop contained only Haruko, the old woman, 
and another girl, not a day over nine years old. When Haruko made 
eye contact with that pigtailed girl, she wished she hadn't. The 
glint in her eyes was terrifying -- born of madness, it seemed. 
There was malice, mixed with pleasure.
     Why? Why had she let herself get mixed up in all of this?
     A little bird, a little yellow chick, had asked her for 
help, and she'd agreed.
     The other girl reached into her backpack and produced a 
magic wand. It was red and violet, with the top part shaped into 
a heart. She held it aloft, and smiled. "PRETTY WARRIOR POWER 
UP!" The cry was almost ear-piercing -- they usually had to be, 
for some reason. This girl was surrounded by ribbons of light, 
which momentarily obscured her form as they reached a crescendo, 
then faded. The girl who stood in her place was not all that 
different. The sailor fuku she wore was shorter, colored purple 
with red ribbons all over, and it had been accessorized with 
knee-high boots, and elbow-length gloves.
     Feeling Piyo stir in her backpack, she realized it was her 
turn. She carefully put down her backpack, and held the magical 
locket, the one that Piyo had given to her, and looked at it 
momentarily. It looked to be made of cheat plastic, a round 
silver thing with a pink heart on it, despite the power it held. 
_Why_ had she agreed to become a magical girl? How many times was 
she going to ask herself that? "Sweet Rose Power Activate!" The 
words seemed hollow, stupid. But they worked. That empty warmth 
of the light enfolded her, changed her.
     Most magical girls looked about the same when they 
transformed -- apart from the requisite costume change, but those 
who were recruited by the magical kingdom of Chrysalia, also grew 
older. Where she was a ten-year-old, she now looked to be at 
least sixteen. With a sigh, she prepared to deal with the youma.
     "Who the hell are you?" demanded Magical Rina. The anger, 
the hostility -- it was more frightening than any youma Haruko -- 
Magical Girl Candy Rose -- had faced so far.
     "M-magical Girl Candy Ro-- Rose." she stammered.
     Rina's gaze was pure hatred. "I was here first."
     "Oh girls..." The old fortune-teller cast off her robe. 
Underneath was a very different person. She was a tall, slender 
blonde, with red eyes and a red, form-fitting jumpsuit. "You have 
no idea how much I hate it when a good plan is ruined."
     Candy Rose was sure she heard Piyo mutter something to 
himself.
     "I am Fortuna." the lady added. "And the only question that 
remains is, who do I get to kill first?"
     Rina grinned. "That's *my* line."
     Fortuna grinned right back, and held up a deck of tarot 
cards. She picked one at random, holding it aloft. "In your 
futures, I see..." she flipped over the card to reveal the image 
of the grim reaper. "DEATH!" She hurled the card; it flew with 
far more force that it should've. Candy Rose ducked, feeling it 
rush over her head by mere centimeters. When the card flew 
outside, it sliced a car nearly in half.
     Rina looked at the damage done, and shook her head. "That 
wasn't very nice, was it?" she said slowly, as though speaking to 
a pet or a disobedient child. "You'll have to be punished." With 
a slow, easy motion, she swept her want upwards. As she did, it 
produced a thin beam of purple energy, that cut off one of 
Fortuna's arms at the elbow. Green blood poured from the wound, 
staining the floor.
     Haruko fought the impulse to vomit, and tasted the terrible, 
pungent taste of bile in her mouth.
     "Ever seen your own blood before?" Rina taunted, as her 
victim looked on with a mixture of shock and rage. Fortuna's red 
eyes seemed to glow with hate, and her teeth were clenched in a 
murderous grimace. "You'll see a lot more of it by the time I'm 
through with you." A purple glow appeared at the tip of her wand. 
Another was blast already forming.
     Haruko inhaled and exhaled shakily, scarcely able to believe 
what she was hearing. Every magical girl had to fight the youma -
- that was their purpose, after all, but to take so much pleasure 
in their suffering... It wasn't as though there wasn't enough 
pain in the world to go around -- Haruko had certainly found 
enough of late.
     When Fortuna's remaining hand rose, it held a ward. It was 
not unlike the kind that could be found at the local shrine, but 
just looking at it Rose could feel the hatred and evil inside of 
it. "We'll see about that, little one." replied the youma-woman.
     Suddenly, the ward was consumed in flames. In an instant, 
Rina was surrounded by a circle of fireballs, which spun around 
before slamming into her tiny body. The explosion shook the 
building to its foundations, and Rina fell to the ground, 
consciousness fading quickly. Maybe it was a fitting punishment. 
Right? _Did_ anyone deserve that kind of pain? Rina's magical 
transformation, like most, reduced a lethal attack to a painful 
injury. Candy Rose shook her head. It was not her place to 
decide, after all. Only to battle the youma.
     She turned to face Fortuna, who was reaching for her tarot 
deck, stained with green blood, which lay on the floor. "Don't 
think I'll let you off easy." she snarled. "Especially since you 
work for Chrysalia."
     Rose moved one foot back, taking up a more stable stance, 
and got her wand ready. This had to end before anyone else got 
hurt. Anyone undeserving. She took a deep breath, and shouted out 
one of her attack spells.
     "Rose Petal Thunder Crash!" Candy Rose's wand shot out a 
storm of pink motes of energy, which engulfed and consumed 
Fortuna. When the haze finally started to clear, only a bad smell 
remained.
     Piyo hopped out of his hiding place, and surveyed the shop. 
"You did well." he said at last. There was something in his 
voice. Something being held back. His gaze fell upon Magical 
Rina. "And we'd better help her."
     Rose looked at the unconscious magical girl, and frowned. 
Thinking of how Rina had acted turned her stomach. She tried not 
to imagine the other sorts of things she might've done. Might do. 
"Why should we?"
     Piyo looked up at her. Although he had the body of a little 
yellow chick, he had the mind, and the eyes of someone who'd seen 
a lot -- maybe too much. His penetrating gaze was as hard as 
stone and clear as glass. "She's hurt. She may not be the nicest 
person around, but that's no reason to let her die."
     She lowered her head and sighed. "I guess so. Some people 
would say she deserves it."
     "I want to think you're better than that." he replied.
     The journey back to Haruko's house was uneventful. It was 
only a few blocks away, and besides, Tokyo had more magical girls 
than any other place on the planet. The pint-size defenders of 
Love and Justice seemed to be drawn to the city like a magnet, 
some said, and none took notice of Magical Girl Candy Rose 
carrying Magical Rina -- except for some high school boys who 
paused to jeer. She kind of wished someone _would_ take notice, 
or at least give thanks now and then; it was hard to be a magical 
girl and be brave when the people she saved were indifferent or 
even openly hostile, as though they could've beat back the youma 
using their briefcases or something.
     She carefully sneaked into her room through the side door, 
and placed Rina on the futon. Reverting to her real self, ending 
the transformation, she started to pace back and forth, from one 
end of her little bedroom to the other.
     It had been only two weeks, and now she wanted it all to 
end. She'd wanted... something. She wasn't sure anymore just what 
it was, except that the indifference, the stares, the occasional 
injuries -- none of it was what she wanted. There were those who 
idolized magical girls, who seemed to worship them. Well, 
specific magical girls, anyway. Tangerine Blossom was having a 
very successful career as both a Defender of Love and Justice and 
a pop idol singer. What could Candy Rose show so far? Three kills 
-- four counting the fortune-teller -- and a lot of pain.
     "What's wrong?" asked Piyo, as he looked over Magical Rina. 
His voice sounded wrong for his body. It belonged to a tall, 
proud man, firm in his convictions. Not a little yellow chick. 
There were a lot of things wrong these days.
     Haruko took a deep breath. "Um. What... happens if I don't 
want to do this anymore?"
     Like everything else, Piyo took it calmly. He slowly turned 
his head to face her -- his movements were always slow and 
deliberate, not the spastic motions of normal birds. "You're 
thinking of quitting." he said simply. "I see."
     She watched him for a moment, waiting for some sign of 
emotion, some reaction.
     Piyo sighed. "I suppose I can't blame you for having doubts. 
But even so, I have to ask you why."
     Holding the locket in the palm of her hand, she replied, 
"It... it just seems so pointless. I go and risk getting hurt, 
and after I'm done no one cares. People just seem to take magical 
girls for granted, or even get mad about being saved. And there's 
always more youma."
     He nodded, taking it all in. "This isn't a good time to be a 
magical girl. In fact, it's a pretty lousy time. For my part I 
blame the people in charge of the magical kingdoms. They've made 
too many odd assumptions and bad decisions over the centuries. 
The things we've seen since the Resurgence..." Piyo paused. He 
seemed to be on the verge of tears.
     "The what?"
     "The Resurgence." he explained. "It started around the year 
1978 or so, when after leaving Earth for so long, the magical and 
dark kingdoms returned. There was the Magical War -- the first 
time magical girls fought each other -- and it was soon followed 
by the first time humans took up arms against the magical. Maybe 
things will change for the better. Or maybe not. I won't lie, so 
I can't make any promises. We need you, and we need you to be 
strong. So I ask, why did you want to become a magical girl?"
     She thought about it. Thought hard. It had happened so 
quickly, it seemed. Before that day she hadn't really given the 
prospect any thought. She was just another elementary school 
student. _That_ was it. "I--I wanted to be someone special. I 
wanted people to like me."
     "Everyone does." he replied. "Nearly. You're just one of 
thousands of Japanese schoolgirls, and one of _billions_ of 
humans. Even if people tell you you're special, unique, it's hard 
to believe."
     "But everyone hates or ignores me."
     Piyo shook his head. "Not everyone. Remember the girl last 
week?"
     Thinking back, she remembered her second outing as Magical 
Girl Candy Rose. Some kind of fish-monster youma was terrorizing 
a sushi bar -- youma tended to get pretty strange sometimes. When 
it was over, the waitress had actually taken the time to thank 
her and even persuaded the chef to give her some free kappamaki. 
But she was the only one. There was, in contrast, the salaryman 
who'd tried to bludgeon her with his suitcase in the middle of 
the battle before he ran away. "Yeah, but..."
     "Look," he said evenly. "I won't -- _can't_ -- force you to 
do this. It has to be your choice. I'm asking you to try it out a 
little longer, though."
     Unable to think of a way to get out of it, she nodded. 
"Alright. But what happens if I decide a really don't want this?"
     Piyo eyed the locked and frowned. "I'll take back the locket 
and the powers, and erase your memories of me and Candy Rose. You 
can just go back to being little Haruko-chan, if that's what you 
want."
     A pair of hands wrapped themselves around Piyo. Magical Rina 
was awake. She smiled as she held him in her hands, as though 
contemplating the best way to kill him. "Riiight little birdie." 
she said derisively. "Just be a wimp and give up. I oughta' break 
your neck for talking like that."
     Haruko gasped. "Let him go!"
     Rina grinned. "Or what?"
     Piyo looked up at Rina and frowned. "This."
     A corona or electricity surrounded Piyo. Rina received a 
terrible electric shock, and convulsed before her spasming 
muscles forced her to release her death-grip on him. Standing up, 
trembling, she cast a venomous glare at Piyo. "You're just a 
companion!" she shrieked. "How can you do that?!"
     "Underestimating a foe can be your downfall. I could've 
brought my electrical attack up to a lethal magnitude if I 
wanted. And then you'd be dead. Remember that."
     Rina glared back at Piyo, trying to think of what to say. 
Finally, she shook her head, and climbed out the window without 
another word.

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Ewen "Blackbird" Cluney                         blk_bird@yahoo.com
Blackbird's Domain            http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/6127/
Knight Kevlar of the Immortal Frog        Silver Knight of Mihoshi
              "Be nice to me; I might just develop 
             psychokinetic powers and destroy Tokyo!"
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