Magical Girl City: Empire of Ice

The weekend came to an end. The next day, the start of a new week started. It was a Monday, nothing special about it. At least, not at first, seemingly. I Had a slow start that compounded and carried through the day. Like a weight that I just couldn’t shrug off.

It wasn’t until halfway through the day that it hit. I’d about forgotten about it, after not having to deal with it during the third event, but I was only reminded due to the concerned comments of my co-workers. So, thankfully, the worst-case scenario was avoided.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a pleasant experience. I was running a fever, felt sluggish, mind drifting, vision hazy. My entire body was screaming in exhaustion, tired and hungry. The reason, wasn’t immediately obvious, but I thought of Éclair’s warnings a long while back.

It would only get worse. My body had adapted, grown used to being flush with magical energy, energy that was now in flux, ebbing away, leaving me weak and tired. I took it slow. Slower than usual. Forced to take it easy, to settle in early.

Fortunately, Talia didn’t need my oversight to get her work done back at the warehouse, neither did any of my colleagues at work. If anything, everyone was eager to pick up the slack, including Liche and Joan. By the next patrol on Wednesday, I wasn’t wholly human yet. Still recovering, but over the worst of it. By then, Talia had finished work on her new totem, granting her a passing grade in just about every magic. Sending bolts of ice, lightning, fire, and whatever could be thought of at a whim. Finally allowing her to leverage her magic reserves, and not simply brute force everything with physical might.

Her effectiveness of course, skyrocketed. At the same time, so did her utility. Now able to properly use healing magic of different types of magic, she was now more than capable as a supporter. And with my knights, Joan, Shi, and Liche, it wasn’t like I was alone.

As for Joan and Liche, well, for Liche, she was like a whole other person in the office. Something people noticed was that she became more outgoing, and more productive. She was quickly becoming a fixture on the team. As for Joan, she had started to withdraw even more, practically becoming invisible.

Joan wasn’t keen to share what she’d experienced, or what it was she was going through. Liche confided in me that Joan was going through a rough patch, but she was certain she could help Joan through what ails her. At least, for the time being. As for how I could contribute, it was simply by continuing to be me.

Our patrol was quick one surprisingly. This week, we were sent into the Industrial District, the patrol was rather small, but we found plenty of monsters to kill and encountered yet another gang base.

This gang had chosen to make a storage building into a makeshift lab for producing magical goods. Surprisingly, compared to the first gang, their attempts at keeping the magical energy contained was, poor. The entire gang had mutated into horrible monsters, the space had been rent and torn into. Miraculously, the faux magic core was intact, having been stored in a small safe, a safe that was covered in marks as numerous critters tried to rip it apart to lay claim to the prize contained within.

There were no signs of a breach, but the lab didn’t look to be that old. Which meant, they’d only just shortly started before pushing their luck.

After the patrol, we earned a tidy sum, and the faux core was fed into the generator.

Progress in the warehouse was ongoing, but my concerns were elsewhere. We were three weeks into the month, and I needed a proposal by the end of the month. It didn’t need to be concrete or perfectly worked over. It just needed to be in a state where we could present the idea of it.

As for my progress, it was abysmal. The pickings were slim, after all this time, I’d about cleaned up a majority of the records room. What once was a mess of folders and scattered papers now had some organization. The shelves were neat, the floor clean. The difference was striking.

Yet, I was no closer to my goal. Coming in Thursday afternoon, I was fully prepared to throw myself into a final sweep before deliberating over my options. Which really came down to deciding the least of the worst option. If that could even be considered a win.

What I didn’t expect, on entering the storage room, was to see the far desk occupied. Sitting at the far end of the room, where the records room’s sole desk laid, was a person. Someone I hadn’t seen before.

A woman, though, clearly an adult, she looked youthful. Her attire could be, summed up in a word, loud. Striped leggings that were not matching and clashed. A shirt that looked like a mess of colors blended together. Nails, each painted a different color with different patterns. Hey hair had signs of being styled, with numerous colors mixed in.

She looked colorful, almost like a rainbow flavored ice cream. And stood against the drab space of the record room and was totally at odds with the company’s standards on uniform.

She said nothing as I walked in, but in her hands was a folder. A folder that had come from a pile that had sat on the desk. A pile that looked to have been rifled through, a pile that was the summation of all these weeks’ worth of work.

I didn’t bother for niceties, “Those are mine.” I said, the woman didn’t immediately look up, instead choosing to lick her forefinger and thumb before turning a page. Only after that, did she spare me a glance, looking up at me.

“I’m aware.” She said after adjusting her glasses and went right back to looking over the paperwork.

With my arms folded, I loomed over her. Waiting for her next move. Which was, to continue ignoring me and finish reading the file she had. I didn’t move. I just continued to watch her. Unwilling to simply walk away, and also, not willing to escalate. Not with how, unique she looked.

There was no way someone like her was just here. Rather, there was no way, she was just an ordinary individual. Kowing that, it was better to wait and see.

Sometime later, she put the file down. With a small yawn, she took her glasses off and wiped her eyes. After she put her glasses back on, she leaned back and looked up at me.

“Still here?” She asked.

I couldn’t help but frown. “I should be asking you that.” I say back.

“Is it? This is a free space, is it not?” She asked, a slight smirk on her face.

“I have permission to be here. And those documents there, are mine.”

“I’m well aware.” She said with a stretch and a groan. “After all, for as long as I remember, I’ve been using this place for inspiration, or taking naps. Which has been rather difficult with you being around.”

I stared down at her, her flippant attitude doing little to make it easier to talk with her. It was, however, confirming what I already suspected. This girl was not normal. “Then you must know why I consider those documents to be important.” I say.

“I do, it’s the talk of the company. Some upstart being given a golden opportunity to climb the ranks. Everyone knows. You do know you’ve been the subject of… many questionable rumors.”

“Does it matter?” I ask.

She shrugs. “Not really, at least, not to me. I do have to say, do you think any of these projects are what you’re looking for? Do you think they can meet the executive’s expectations?”

“Admittedly, as they are, no. I don’t think any of those projects are worth that much. Not with the deadline we were given.” I answered back.

“Then why?” She asks back. “There are a number of bets that started, with many believing you’ll drop out. Are you really going to bet on one of these lame horses for the grand race?”

“What other choice do I have? And even if they are lame horses, with the team I have, I think we can pull something off.”

She sneered. “Really? You plan to turn this trash into gold? You do know, this room is constantly rifled through. You’re not the first to look through this place in search of hope, or a means to go beyond your station. I will admit, you are the first to actually organize and clean this place up, but you really think you can do it?”

“Do I have any other choice?” I reply. “It’s either this or mediocrity. As it stands, the division will collapse before long, and not just because we’re falling behind. The majority of the division is nearing retirement age, many of them are at the brink due to how they’ve been treated over the years. This very well might be their final original project.”

Her sneer fades at my words. A sigh leaves her lips. “Your assessment isn’t wrong, only… isn’t a shame that their final hurrah is something like this?” She waves one of the folders in my face. Of the many projects, that one was among the most egregious. And yet, it was also one of the better options.

“As I already said, I have no choice. Not unless you have an alternative.”

Instead of balking, or laughing in my face, she hummed. Watching me, taking me in. “I might actually have an alternative in mind…” She says after a long moment, “Only, I’m trying to figure out if your worthy of it.”

“Worthy?” say back, “If I wasn’t worthy, would you be talking to me right now? You said you stay here more than not, and whether or not that’s true, I have no way of knowing. I do know though, that you wouldn’t be approaching me like this, not unless you wanted something from me. Or, not unless you wanted to stop me for some reason.”

“And why couldn’t I have just shown up to sabotage you?”

“Over this?” I motion to the files. “Honestly, this pile is sabotage enough.”

She laughs. “That is true…Mm…” She goes silent, humming again. “Fine, tomorrow, be here, or be square. I’ll have something for you.”

And like that, she left. Considered her words, her actions, and in the end, I dismissed it. There was no point doing so, not when I still had work to do. I spent the rest of my time doing final checks and cleaning up before heading home. The next day, true to her word, the woman was back.

The moment I arrived, she handed a thick folder over. And it was thick. It was filled with notations and was easily larger than multiple of the previous projects combined.

“What is this?” I asked, even as I opened it up.

“An old project I found.” She said, not quite answering the question.

“And why not do it yourself?” I asked, at least, until I saw who the lead for the now dead project was.

“Because… it didn’t feel right.” She answered back, but I almost didn’t hear her. No. I was too focused on the name.

It was Terada. This was Terada’s project. It was old, the paper had started to yellow with age. Some of the writing was starting to wear down as well, but… the core of it was there, no, not just the core of it. If anything, a majority of the project had already been drafted.

Contained in this single file, was years of effort. It was, a mostly complete proposal, a final draft towards getting something made. As I flipped through in silence, the woman decided to speak up.

“Early on, the report was more or less, lost after a fiasco. Nobody really talks about it, but the project lead had a falling out with someone, or he stepped on someone’s toes. Nobody knows the truth really, though, I have heard the executive might understand more, since the two used to be close friends, at least, according to rumors.” She said, speaking as I continued to read.

“It was pretty early on my career, since arriving in this city that I was given access to the records room, and well, if you think it was a mess now, it was so much worse back then. Like you did, I cleaned the place up and was looking for a project. Which is about when I found that file, sequestered in a corner, all but forgotten.”

I sighed and shut the file. My head hurting from what I was seeing, the implications. I shut my eyes to steady myself, but when I looked at the woman before me again, I knew. She was a magical girl, someone like me. Already, based on her appearance alone, her history, I had a strong sense of who she was, and where she stood in the company hierarchy.

“And yet, you sat on it all these years.” I said.

“Well, yeah, at first, I wanted to run with it, but when I read through it and looked a bit into the history, well…” She actually looked embarrassed as she pressed, “I realized, it wouldn’t be right. I made notes, some additions here and there, but for the most part, I was sitting on it until either the original lead asked for it, or well, he retired.”

“Terada you mean?” I ask, she nods. “And did you ever tell him? Tell him that you had this?” I continue.

“Yeah, after I realized he was still alive, and working for the company I approached him about it, and he gave me his blessing. I almost went through with it, but at the last minute I decided otherwise. Like, I’m great, obviously. I could easily adapt this, finish this work, but… it meant something to Terada. In some ways, it could be considered his crowning jewel, his magnum opus. Sure, he was still young back then, which is partly the reason why the development of this story was so troubled. But I firmly believe this would be better handled by the original artist, not me.”

“And why me?” I ask. “No… rather, why would you trust me with this?”

“I don’t know, or… well… Mm… I suppose, as you said, this is the final hurrah for most of them. It might be the final chance I have at seeing this brought to fruition. Even if I’m not involved in the process, just seeing this project finished by the original creator, that alone is worth more than anything else to me. That, and if you mess it up, I could easily argue for a remake in the future.” She said, giving me a smile.

I wanted to roll my eyes at that. Honestly, it felt more like a challenge when she put it like that. And honestly? I didn’t mind.

“I’ll give it a look over the weekend and see if it will work. And if it doesn’t, I’ll make sure to give it back.”

“Its fine, if you decide otherwise, you can just keep it. It’s not like I didn’t make copies.” She said back, still smiling.

“Very well, if that’s what you want.” I said and didn’t continue to pursue a conversation, instead, I immediately left and returned back to my unit back at the condominium. My entire focus and attention were on the files in my hand. Laying them out, getting a gist of the story down.

On the surface, the document was fine. Proposal worthy in a cinch. The problem was, the project was filled with issues. Issues that the woman that handed me these files had carefully annotated. Sticky notes and highlighter marks dotted the whole thing. Entire sections were highlighted, with sticky notes adding addendums that were plastered on a number of pages.

It was well into the night before I put the files down with a groan. Having just barely worked through it. Properly digesting everything inside would take most of the week, and then properly paring it down into a proposal ready form would probably take until the end of the week, if I was careful.

Even then, the project itself wasn’t exactly in a good state. The core pieces of the story were there, the bare skeleton existed, but everything else was… not. To put it simply. Like someone had finished the frame of a jigsaw puzzle, making it all too easy to slowly fill in the rest. Only, those pieces were mixed in with what felt like a dozen other puzzles worth of pieces.

How the different key parts came together was a mess, how the story would end, the conclusion was up in the air, with multiple potential endings. The whole thing looked workable, but it really was a tangled mess.

Yes, just about everything was there, and if we could untangle the mess, we’d have something ready within three months without a doubt, but… it was obvious that this project had been mired in development hell. Sure, the woman’s notations made a difference, the notes and highlighted portions provided direction, structure, but… even they weren’t enough to fully disentangle the mess and their meanings.

Something that she agonized over quite vocally over the many notes. That she just handed this over had me wondering if the real reason she hadn’t gone through with it, was for the same reason I was now beginning to question if this project was even worth pursuing.

Without the original team, without Terada, this entire puzzle could come out in a dozen different ways with each and every one of the looking correct, even if they aren’t. Even then, with it being as old as it was… what were the chances Terada and company would even be able to make something of this mess?

And the problems just went on and on… until it boiled down to a simple question. Or rather, a simple realization. That, I could probably make one of those lesser projects workable. A quickly made, mediocre quality slop that would make money, probably secure my job, but little else.

Or…

I could gamble on Terada and company. Throw in all my lots behind them and aim big…

Mediocrity? Or excellence? The answer was clear. I’d rather go all in now, rather than ride the tide and wait for another opportunity. I’d much rather have a bright and brilliant crash, compared to a slow sinking death.

With decision made, I set aside the folder and prepped for bed. After all, tomorrow was a new day, and also, tomorrow, I’d be sparring with someone courtesy of Éclair.

And so, with that, I decided to throw the dice.