Chapter 7: Unprecedented Metrics
On a sleek monitor resting beside a steaming cup of coffee, the security footage replayed. A girl clad in tactical crimson fabric, a dark eyepatch pinned over her left eye, was laughing with unhinged glee as she violently spun a colossal minigun.
"I love you so much I'm gonna show you in pain!!" the red girl screamed through the digital speakers. She very clearly, explicitly meant it.
The woman watching the screen furrowed her brow, leaning closer to the glass. "Why does that look..."
Sarah trailed off, shaking her head. Initially, she had been completely ecstatic that someone had finally managed to defeat Celeste; a harsh reality check was exactly what the arrogant high-ranker needed to push past her plateau and grow. But seeing the rookie responsible for the upset in actual, chaotic motion? It left her with deeply disturbing questions.
Sarah had seen multi-transformations before. She had seen high-level fusions. But the pink form and this new red form... they weren't either of those.
On the couch nearby, her cat lay flat on its side, looking thoroughly bored. A prominent, heart-shaped red crystal embedded in its forehead caught the ambient light as Sarah paced around the office, making it sparkle brilliantly against its fur.
The creature stretched its paws, letting out a lazy yawn. "Sarah... you're actually pacing? Hmhmhm... how delightfully delicious! I haven't seen you pace like a caged animal since... well, you know who."
Sarah whipped around, glaring. "Not now, feline!"
The cat purred softly, extending its front legs. "I have an actual name, you know."
Sarah let out a heavy, stressed sigh. "Not now, Carbuncle..."
"Gosh, you are so incredibly infuriating sometimes!" Carbuncle huffed, turning her back and beginning to nonchalantly groom herself.
She stopped mid-lick, however, the moment she saw Sarah reach into her blazer and pull out a glowing, heart-shaped pendant. The cat's smug smirk instantly vanished. "You're... you're actually calling him?"
"This is... completely beyond anything that should standardly exist," Sarah muttered, her fingers tightening around the metal. "Yes, I'm calling him."
Carbuncle turned her gaze back to the monitor, watching the exact moment Tony violently shifted into Pink right as the corporate lobby warped into an arena. The cat blinked its slitted eyes in genuine fascination. "Oh? A boy physically becoming a magical girl? Now that is odd..."
"It has literally never happened before," Sarah sighed, her voice tight. "Throughout the history of the multiverse, there have only ever been magical girls and Knights of Light. This is entirely unprecedented."
Lifting the heart pendant high into the air, Sarah closed her eyes. "Magic that bears the will of justice... I summon thee!"
Instantly, the sleek overhead lights flickered violently. The digital screens across the office glitched, cascading into arrays of raw data code. The room itself began to tremble with a low, heavy vibration as a thick, ethereal mist rolled across the floorboards.
From the center of the fog, a deep, resonating voice spoke, echoing from everywhere and nowhere at once.
“Sarah...”
“It has been many years since you have last called upon me...”
“What is it...?”
Sarah took a brave step forward into the mist. "Magic... I have a critical question. Why is this new magical girl... a teenage boy?"
A heavy, localized pause filled the room. Then, the voice rumbled back.
“I simply granted him access to power. His own soul did the rest.”
“Why do you ask?”
“Does a mere boy threaten you, Sarah?”
Sarah’s eyes went wide, her corporate composure cracking. "N... No! Of course not! It's just... he's a total anomaly. Where does he even standardly fit into our system?!"
“Is that not entirely obvious?
He is a magical girl.”
The entity paused for a brief moment, the mist swirling.
“Actually, saying it aloud does sound a bit ridiculous... but yes. He undergoes a full magical girl transformation, so he belongs under your jurisdiction.”
Sarah stood her ground, her fists clenching. "Then what emotion does he even represent?! What is fueling him?!"
Two massive, glowing eyes made of pure, crackling electricity materialized within the fog, leaning in uncomfortably close to her face. “Love. In all of its infinite forms.”
Sarah’s professional smile faded instantly, replaced by a look of profound, staggering confusion. Even Carbuncle stopped grooming herself entirely, her jaw dropping as she stared up at the electric eyes.
Sarah let out a breathless, disbelieving chuckle. "Love in all forms...? That's... true love doesn't even exist anymore in the wide system! Only in minor, localized forms!" she argued, her voice rising in a mixture of fury and absolute bewilderment.
The electrical eyes of Magic stared right through her.
“No... it did not vanish,” the entity rumbled softly, the mist beginning to recede.
“You all simply forgot that it existed.”
With a final, echoing hum, the presence slowly vanished from the room, leaving the corporate office completely quiet.
Sarah stood frozen in the center of the room, left with significantly more questions than answers.