Magical Girl City: Empire of Ice

After the shower, Nyx and I were given simple gym attire and found ourselves back in the sparring room.

Éclair went into detail, discussing how the fight went, how both of us could have done better. Nyx had apparently held back too much, which hurt her evaluation, whereas most of the comments that were aimed at me, were simply that my movements lacked precision.

Well, that and I went through my magic way too fast. In the end, what caught my attention was a better explanation of how the uniform worked.

“As I said before, your uniform is your ideal self. Now, why that matters, is that both your uniformed self is more of a shell. It protects you from damage and harm, to a point. Loss of limbs, gone. Injuries, gone. What does happen, is that your uniform gets locked away depending on the severity of the injuries. When your uniform is destroyed, it will make a last-ditch effort to preserve your life, kind of like an emergency evacuation. Worst-case scenario, you get hit with a lethal blow, and your uniform stays intact.”

She took a moment to make sure we understood what she had said before continuing.

“If it breaks, it will drain what energy you have left to try and reconstitute what was lost, if you don’t have enough, well, lost limbs stay lost. Injuries stay serious and if you die, well, you stay dead, obviously. If dealt a lethal wound, and your uniform stays intact, like say, beheading, well, you die. If you’re quick on the draw, you can recall your uniform, and your body will be reconstructed starting from the head. But again, you need to be quick.”

Again, she pauses.

“First, a uniform is like an exosuit or power suit. What it does, is take your magical power and use it to bolster your capabilities. It is a direct force multiplier. As you upgrade your uniform, its effectiveness improves as does the severity of injuries it can take before shattering. And also the efficiency of its emergency recovery when the uniform does break.”

Another pause.

“However, it is a glutton for magical energy. It’s comparable to a top tier sports car. With the size of your tank being how much magical energy you have, and the grade of the fuel being the quality of your magical energy. If you slam the pedal and go full bore, you’re going to guzzle down what you have in seconds. Which is why you need to learn when to slam the pedal down and when to ease up.”

We both nodded along. Nyx may have been a bit more experienced, compared to me with her uniform. But a lot of that had to do with the natural advantages of being a dog. A hunting dog to be specific. Even as a lesser magical girl, she still had instilled within her a suite of skills and abilities that allowed her to be a mainstay.

She could heal herself. She knew when to rely on physical prowess and when to use her magic. She even knew how much magic she could and should invest in particular maneuvers without wasting too much energy.

She kind of had too, considering a hunting dog had a small reservoir in the first place. Especially with her being a lesser magical girl.

“As a dog, you need to be especially careful. Doubly so, because of your typing. You are a damage dealer, an assassin type to be exact. You’ve been given a lot of tools that let you shrug off blows, or even pretend to be a fighter, but you’re not. If Prima here had a better handle of her magical power, you would have lost without a doubt.”

That didn’t mean she knew everything. If anything, it just meant that what she didn’t know, she really needed to know.

“As for you, despite being a rabbit, which has an incredible growth rate, you need to learn control. As you get stronger, it becomes less about the quantity of your magical power, but moreso how you use it.”

“I am aware, but is there a limit to how much energy I can have?”

“No, but once you hit a certain threshold, increasing your power naturally gets more difficult. Rabbits have a much higher threshold, and they have multiple points where their natural growth slows as they exit what is called the beginner phase. Typically their growth fully stutters when they get to about where a fox starts at. It’ll still be good, but it won’t be nearly as exceptional. Which is why, especially for rabbits, I don’t suggest using gold coins to increase your total energy pool, at least until you’ve jacked up the quality of your magic. For dogs, that’s less of an issue.”

I wasn’t sure what that meant exactly, but I understood the intent.

“Of course, there are ways to improve your growth outside of using coins, through special facilities, cultivation chambers, or even certain perks can improve your natural growth.”

She said, waving her hands.

“You mention there are alternative methods to increasing how much magic we have, but are there other aspects we need to take into consideration?”

“There are, and that would be your physical strength and health. Working out and training has a small effect on improving your base capabilities and also have an effect on your total magic power. The better the vessel, the more magic it can hold, basically. You can use gold coins to improve this, but for the most part, there is no point in doing so. You will also passively get stronger thanks to having your magic circulate in your blood stream. As a rabbit, you should only use a gold coin to bolster your capacity when your growth stabilizes. Otherwise, you’re wasting potential. Incidentally, when you use a gold coin for the first time on yourself, either to get a perk, or some physical alteration, be it improving the quality of magic, improving the quantity of magic you have, or adding a modifier to your magic, it will have an additional quality improvement attached to it, so keep that in mind. As you’ve used a coin for your weapon, you still have that opportunity.”

I nod along, though. “What else should we spend gold on? Will it work for a uniform, and why won’t me getting a weapon improve my magic quality?” I had to ask.

“Simple, your weapon is an extension of you, but not you. Your uniform, is really just a manifestation of your idealized self. An avatar of sorts, so that doesn’t affect you so much. If you were to use a gold coin to strengthen your body directly, or boost your physicality in some way, it would have the same effect. As for what you should buy, well, I have already told you about perks and synergies. You should focus on those as I said yesterday for the time being. That or improving your weapons. What I didn’t mention, is that you can acquire additional affinities, as in, you can learn to natively use a different magic.”

I nod along and even Nyx does too.

“Do keep in mind, that each additional affinity gets less efficient, and costlier. Both in gold costs, and in energy cost. However, there are benefits to adding multiple affinities if you can make it work with your synergy. In fact, they can sometimes have multiplicative effects if done right. Whereas, clashing affinities can cause serious issues.”

Again, we nod along.

“As for what affinities to choose, just pick what works best for you and keep in mind how it synergizes with your current abilities, and how it can help bolster or improve them. The mascots say it, and I will as well, choose what you want. Not what others want from you. The more in tune you are with your magic, your wants and desire, the more effective you’ll be. And, if you pick a bad perk, or affinity, or even feel like you got the wrong modifier for your magic, you can always have it removed with a gold coin. Though, it is wasteful, and to replace it, you’ll have to pay the original fee. For example, if you’re on your third perk, which would cost four gold coins, you’ll need to use a gold coin to remove it and will have to use another four coins to get a new one. The costs also double with each new perk, same with affinities. So, one coin, two coins, four coins, and such.”

We both nod again. Making sure to make note of everything she said.

“Should we improve talents with gold coins?” I ask.

“Golding a talent isn’t necessary, but it is advised if you use it. There isn’t a limit, but it does get more expensive, same with perks, the more talents you gold. Also, each talent you gold increases the limit you have on talents you can acquire. And your total talent capacity, if that makes sense.

“So, I can have a limitless number of skills at gold level talent, which, is really scary high, isn’t it?”

“It is. You basically become a prodigy if you use a gold coin on it. The issue, again, is the cost. The cost increase is linear, but gold coins are exceptionally valuable. Nobody and I mean nobody will ever have that many coins to spend them like that.

“And what of perks? Do they have a limit?”

“No.” She says. “There is no limit to the number of perks yo can acquire, though, do keep in mind, as I’ve said before it gets costlier as you acqire more. And most magical girls are very careful about acquiring new perks partly de to the cost, but also because of how each perk interacts with each other. Like I said yesterday, synergy.”

“Can you explain that further? I know you explained your own set of abilities, but it’s kind of hard to wrap my mind around it all.” Nyx chirped in.

“Well, for Prima, regeneration is essentially off the table. Ice magic bolsters her health and defenses but also makes her harder to heal. For you…” Éclair pauses and looks at Nyx. “You might want something that makes you more resistant to magical effects. It would also give you some silver resistance, which, you clearly need. Anything beyond that, well? I wouldn’t know. On paper, some perks might be a good idea, but in practice, you realize pretty quick they don’t fit. You really are better off experimenting and figuring it out for yourself. That mascots can help to an extent, but don’t overly rely on them.

She nods, though… I speak up.

“How does that work? She mentioned my silver blade, but I don’t understand how that matters.” I know Berry mentioned something about it being good against certain entities, but… a reminder was always nice.

“Silver is a special metal. It’s strong against the undead and spirits. It can also hurt incorporeal beings.”

Thinking back, is that why my blade could cut through the darkness surrounding Grim? If it hadn’t been silver, would I have even been able to make it to her side?

“As you improve your weapon, the silver will improve as well, improving its ability to do damage, even enabling it to not just do physical damage, but soul damage to certain entities.”

“That sounds useful.”

“It is, silver, especially when empowered or enchanted is especially strong against most beings, being supernaturally sharp. It does have a critical weakness.”

“That would be?”

“Beings without souls. Most things will cut fairly easily when you hit them with the blade, but anything without a soul, well, it’ll feel like hitting a wooden block with a dull knife.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“They aren’t too common. So, it shouldn’t be an issue. Even if you do fight them, you do have a gun.”

I nodded at that, she was right.

“Now any other questions?”

“One last question. Platinum coins. How do they work?” Even Nyx perked at that question and looked at Éclair with surprise.

“You used a platinum coin?” Nyx asks.

“Technically, but I didn’t use it on myself.”

It didn’t diminish the awe in Nyx’s features.

“But Platinum coins are different. Much like gold coins, you can do whatever, but the scope is much bigger. To the point where you can change natural laws, or history and all. With a platinum coin you can also return to where you came from, surely you know that much.” Éclair said.

“I do, Usagi, the rabbit told me so.” I say back, though, with a hint of uncertainty.

“As they all do. It’s a bit of an incentive to keep people wanting to climb. Especially if they don’t like their new life, which is rarely a problem. Though, I don’t think that’s what you’re asking.”

“It isn’t. I wanted to know, does it work like a gold coin when strengthening yourself?”

“Yes and no… When you receive a platinum coin, you are presented with a choice. You need to choose an aspect of yourself to platinum. A skill, a talent, a physical or mental ability. Some abstract part of yourself needs to be chosen and elevated. In doing so you reach the next level, or so I was told. After that, you can only improve your reserves by a large, but fixed amount.”

“Did the mascots tell you that when you received it?”

“Partially, but I also heard it from other magical girls. At the time I wasn’t exactly in the best of condition.” She said, her ever cheerful demeanor dimming. And honestly? I understood. Considering what the rumors said, based on what little I could gather on what she had to do to get that coin in the first place.

We both nod. I could tell that both Nyx and I were contemplating what that meant. If we could receive a platinum coin, exactly what would we want to excel above all else?

As we contemplated, the lecture officially ended though, not without a final note.

“By the way, Prima. About your hair.”

“My hair? You noticed then?” I asked back, my hand shooting to the frosted tips of my hair.

“Yeah, when I told you earlier about uniforms and how people handle themselves, they tend to be in two camps. Dissociation and Attunement. Both have their benefits and issues. Dissociation further divides the magical girl persona from their base form. Simply put, it becomes impossible to discern the two as the same person. Unless you see them transform in front of you, but even then, your brain will have a hard time associating the two. It also makes it harder for these types of magical girls to use their magics outside their transformation.”

She pauses a moment.

“As for attunement, well, it involves getting more in tune with your idealized self and actualizing it. It makes it easier, in some cases, makes you indistinguishable from your transformed self. It also makes it easier to use your magic and abilities.”

“Will that be a problem?” I ask. Knowing that my hair change was likely related to attunement.

“Not particularly. Normal people won’t put two and two together, not even if you scream your identity in their face. They just aren’t built to process that. At least, not yet. As for other magical girls, they might be able to locate you.”

“And what if I want to undue it?”

“Give it time. Normally, attunement only ever happens in two kinds of cases. Either you spend a lot of time in a high magic density area, and I mean, abnormally dense, or if you have a sudden surge of magical power when put under extreme stress. One can be manufactured, the other… is a rarity.”

“That… is good to know.”

“Isn’t it? Just give it a few weeks and it’ll go back to normal. Even if it somehow does get worst, at most your colleagues will comment on you doing something with your hair.”

“Thank you, not just for the advice but well, everything.”

“But of course, after all we all live in this city together.” For a moment, I considered asking her why she was still here, or rather, something told me she could leave, but it was just that she chose not to leave. In the end, instead of asking her that, I asked a very different question.”

“And what about you? Are you attuned or dissociated.” She was quiet a moment. Her eyes, unwavering, looked up at me. In the end, she gave me a toothy smile.

“If you get lucky, you might just find out.”

“I look forward to when that happens then.” I reply cooly and we separate. My mind whirred. Éclair was going to spend more time with Nyx, it was about noon, and I still had a full day ahead of me. I had calls to make, preparations to make. For a moment it felt all too much with everything else.

This really didn’t feel like a week off. If anything, I was working harder than I did on a normal workday. With a final, heavy sigh, I made my way home.

Time was running out. The moment I got home, I made calls and preparations. There was a lot I wanted to get done before the week’s end. With how busy I was, I doubt that I would be able to meet Éclair again and she seemed aware of that.

As night fell, I received a message alerting me that I was due for the patrol tomorrow night. Adding to my already frayed nerves. A part of me longed for a nice hot bath. Longed for that bathhouse. In the end though, I just took a final hot shower and slept.

The next day, from the very morning I was out and about. The first stops were a couple of apartments. Their location wasn’t great, most of them were hardly an upgrade. Well, they had bathrooms in the units, so that was a positive.

Eventually, I came across a decent enough place. It was in the Eastern Residential District, near the absolute void that sat below where the Lower District was. Well, less a void and more like it was a placeholder, now that I actually gave it a long look. Standard cityscape that seemed to stretch out for an indeterminable distance.

Getting too close to it, sent shivers down my spine, not out of danger, but out of just how wrong it felt. The city borders felt the same. When someone got further out, there was nothing but an endless wasteland, and from what I’ve heard, even heading out to the ocean led to an endless nothing. Which made me wonder, what of the sky? How far did it stretch. Were we in a giant box, a dome? Was the sun and moon a real thing? Not to mention, I remember Grim’s remarks on that very same topic. At the time, I hadn’t really thought about it, but… now?

Such questions filled me with existential dread, but… Well, this was my new home. As odd as it was. And really, I didn’t have the luxury to worry over it.

The place I found was a condominium. A unit was for sale, at a decent price. The interior, was alright… A full bathroom with a tub and shower. A kitchen, living area, and a dedicated bedroom with a window and a balcony that looked out over the eastern horizon.

The price was… A bit high, to be honest. It wasn’t a rental either. I had to buy it. The following payments and the building fees added up to quite a problem. With my current salary, moving into this place would have been stupid.

Luckily, I didn’t have just my salary to fall on. Some of the calls I had made the day prior were to the bank for a pre-approval for a loan if need be. With a hefty down payment added on, the papers were quickly filled out and the move in day was decided to be at the end of the week, the day before I had work. Just enough time to move in and crash.

The condo was fairly well off, with a fully equipped gym with a fitness instructor on call, a parking garage beneath the structure, a swimming pool that had daily workout classes, and even a small convenience store that was fully stocked. The commute to work would be a bit longer, but in exchange, I could get my workouts before leaving the house if need be.

On top of the fact that if I had issues with my apartment or if anything needed to be repaired or fixed, there was a full-time maintenance crew that would handle it. It just meant that living here was an easy yes…

Only… the building was managed by a board. With each unit owner having a say. A quick brief talk with my future neighbors revealed no issues, just that there were monthly potlucks, and game nights every Friday. Even then, I couldn’t help but think that something would inevitably go wrong…

Then again, what do I know?

With my new place lined up, it was time to prepare to officially move out of my old apartment. When I arrived, the landlady was at her desk, like she always seemed to be. Doing this or that. When she looked up and saw me, her eyes lit up.

“Ah, Prima! It’s been awhile, I thought something had happened to you. Especially after you went out with that bit of eye candy.”

She must be talking about Leo. Though, didn’t Leo bring me here after I drank myself not a stupor? Did she not see me then?

“I didn’t mean to worry you. I’ve just been busy with work and all, and well, finding a new place to live.”

“Oh? You’re moving out?”

“Yeah, I already moved most of my stuff out, but…”

“Is it him? Are you moving in with him?” She asked, her eyes sparkling.

“No, I actually found another apartment and…”

“No, no, no. I understand perfectly. A young woman, catching the eyes of a young man like that. I understand perfectly. Ah, young love.”

…What? I couldn’t help but stare as the woman swooned over whatever fantasy she had in mind.

“You don’t have to worry at all about anything dear, it’ll all work out.”

“Er, okay…” I just went ahead and answered. Though, as we filled out the paperwork and I handed it over. “When can I expect my deposit back?”

“Deposit?” She asked back, fluttering her eyes.

I stared. She stared right back.

“I’m not getting it back, am I?”

She just gave me a smile.

Typical… “Whatever, fine.” I say, not wanting to make a bigger deal out of this. At least I didn’t have to deal with this place…

“Ah, by the way, be sure to check your mail before you go.”

“Will do.”

The mail room was the same as ever. My mailbox was full of junk. In the midst of it all was an unfamiliar letter. Curiosity got the better of me and I opened it up, revealing…

A poorly written note. Attached to it was a children’s drawing.

A thank you, for helping out their dad.

Then it hit me. That guy I had helped last month. The one I had rescued from the depths. He’d made it home. Sent a letter, or rather, his child had.

For a moment, I wasn’t sure how to feel, especially the picture. A child’s idea of what I had looked like. A hero that had saved their dad. A part of me wanted to snort, throw it away. Another part of me, the part that won, carefully folded it up and put it into my pocket, alongside the letter.

As I stared at the rest of the letters, I still had no idea how to feel…