7.02 Aftermath
Moon of Long Nights, 1068 AR
“With the exception of Mana, is this everyone, then?” Nicola asked into the round. Seika had a look around; there were Arisu, Marisa, Miyu, Momo, herself, as well as Rinko, surprisingly enough, and Ayame. Miori was absent to bring back the abducted people in PPiper’s world – and was trapped there besides, with magic interfering with simple portal spells like Mana’s, as Arisu informed them after she instructed Janus to fashion a key, the crafting of which would take up to a day. According to Rinko, Mana was called home for something urgent right after they finished bringing back the borrowed miniatures to the store.
And Maria. Who could forget about Maria? She was still shackled, sitting nearby and simply staring at a spot in the distance, like she was contemplating her whole life and how it led to this moment. She was a pitiful shell of her former self ever since she was freed from that mask and saw the dead elven woman.
Nicola nodded, taking the quiet as a resounding yes from the group.
“First things first, allow me to apologize to you all, again. I was tricked, like an utter fool. The High Enchantress sent a small force to my fort, like always, but this time someone called the ‘Emissary’, prepared a… surprise.”
A little snort came from Maria as Nicola mentioned the ‘Emissary’, and a few heads turned her way. Momo almost looked like she wanted to jump out of her chair to go and punch her until Miyu put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. Nicola continued.
“They were fed something that exploded once their masks were removed. Most of my marionette forces were wiped out in an instant, and then she besieged the fort outside of my city to keep me busy. Incidentally, said attack ceased once the attacks on your world did.”
“That ‘Emissary’ is Fames, a Deogemma,” Miyu quickly added, and Nicola nodded.
“On that note… my thanks to you, Rinko. I don’t doubt that the death toll in your world would have been much higher without your interference. You have proven to be an excellent pupil, and adept at using your abilities to defend your world.”
Rink blushed a little, rubbing the back of her head.
“A-ah… n-not worth mentioning! I’m just h-happy that my hobby saved people!”
“So, this Fames’ involvement means that this is all part of… whatever this plan of Scotus is?” Seika asked now, and Nicola let out a long sigh.
“I know even less about this plan than you do, Seika. At this point we can only speculate.”
Arisu quickly raised her hand, and Nicola looked at her. Seika could see a little, gentle smile on Nicola’s face – a far cry from how she used to react to any Deogemma who crossed her sight.
“What is it, Arisu dear?”
“Ami is telling me that Scotus’ grand plan is for everyone and everything to become one with his mother Chaos again.”
Silence fell on the room, and people exchanged confused looks.
Does this tell you anything, Minerva? Pallas?
“I think I have fragments of memories from father,” Minerva confirmed. A short moment to think later, she continued.
“Chaos is… a difficult subject. Some say she’s a real Deogemma who exists out there somewhere. Others say she is the literal origin of the Universe, but that’s mythology. There are so many worlds and cultures with their own, I wouldn’t want to presume that ours is the correct one.”
After Minerva, Pallas spoke up as well to add her own knowledge.
“From what I heard, Chaos is a formless mass of matter permeating everything in the universe. Or a goddess who dreamed reality into existence and observes it but can never interact with it. There are so many conflicting accounts that it has become impossible to discern which is the real story.”
Seika nodded and did her best to relay that information to the rest of the room, and Arisu lowered her eyes.
“Ami says she doesn’t know much about Chaos, either. Uncle Scotus and Aunt Nyx are the only ones who have ever seen her in person, but that was a very long time ago, and they keep quiet about it.”
“We know that they wanted to prevent Arisu’s existence for some reason that has something to do with Chaos,” Marisa added.
“The goddess that created the Universe, a girl who they want to erase because she’s a threat to their plan, which has something to do with making everyone and everything one with Chaos again…” Nicola mused, and shook her head.
“I can’t make any sense of it, I’m afraid.”
Seika nodded, putting the strange silvery rod she pulled out of the ground in Tokyo on the table.
“We went and collected one of these. When four are placed near each other, they transport whatever is between them to another world. We already confirmed through Bellona that the ones planted by the ‘players’ transported houses around Tokyo to their home world. I am assuming that the rods which the High Enchantresses’ soldiers placed around the warehouses in Saitama are doing the same thing but transporting them to the High Enchantresses’ world. The question is just: what do Scotus and his family gain from the High Enchantress getting our rice and whoever controls that other world getting our people?”
“I think I can answer that,” another voice spoke. This one was unfamiliar to Seika, and she turned her head, witnessing a tall man stepping through one of Mana’s portals, followed by the witch herself who promptly took her place at Arisu’s side, opposite Marisa, and exchanged a small look with her. The unfamiliar man wore glasses, and his black hair was cut the length of two finger widths. His clothes looked like he was trying to fit in on Earth, but the black coat and fedora he chose for the task had the opposite effect. He reminded Seika of one of the invincible stalker bosses from a certain series of zombie games.
“Well, with whom do we have the pleasure?” Nicola addressed the large man and he cleared his throat, putting his left hand on his chest before he bowed slightly. Seika thought she could hear a mechanical whirr and rattle as he did that.
“My name is Stevyn Grendel, and I come from another world. I’m an… a friend of Mana’s,” he seemed to correct himself mid-sentence, and he put a hand on Mana’s shoulder as he did so. Seika was certain they shared some kind of complicated history, but she didn’t feel the need to pry right now.
“I can explain what’s happening, if you’ll let me disassemble this device,” he continued and pointed at the silvery rod in front of Seika.
“Let him do it, Miss Hitoishi,” Mana said, and Seika looked the young witch in the eyes. She appeared like she already knew what he was going to demonstrate, and it piqued Seika’s curiosity. She grabbed the device and pushed it towards Stevyn.
“Here you go.”
“Thank you,” the giant man spoke and retrieved a strange tool from his coat. It looked like a screwdriver, at least the handle did, without the actual metal rod with the flat head, but with an array of buttons on it. He pushed a few of them and a thin, blue beam shot out of the top, attaching to the screws on the rod, loosening them carefully.
Oh. It is a screwdriver.
“A little context for everyone: I work at a facility called the Interdimensional Research Institute, and just as the name suggests, we study objects and people that come from other worlds, or other dimensions, into ours. We research the other worlds’ cultures, beliefs, industries, and even magic systems, to the point we can replicate magic with our technology. Recently, we noticed a curious effect that got stronger the more artifacts we collected.”
Everyone listened attentively as Stevyn removed panels and circuitry from the rod, slowly revealing some sort of capsule on the inside.
“Did you know that parallel worlds can be stationary next to each other, or drifting apart from each other, or even get closer? The latter effect becomes stronger the more these parallel worlds exchange people or items. Usually, this effect is utterly negligible, like how a planet’s moon will slowly drift further away from its host planet over the course of billions of years.”
Seika thought back to Jove’s lecture regarding the parallel worlds and the patrons who came from them, seventeen years ago. According to him they also sometimes rapidly came together and then drifted away again, but Seika assumed that once close together, it was a stable state.
Stevyn now removed the capsule from the rod and opened it, placing the item inside on the table. Everyone present leaned a little closer before they exchanged confused looks. Inside the capsule was what looked like a contact lens, with circuitry running across its surface. There were also strange wires that extended past it, and Seika shuddered as she imagined what those could possibly do when worn.
“These rods are simply beacons. They contain an item from another world, something mundane and ever present, like this ocular implant, and their dimensional signature gets amplified a thousandfold. They are signals for much more powerful machines, likely located in the worlds they originate from. Once a signal between a few of them is established, they transport whatever’s between them to the word to which they are anchored, which leaves behind a temporary rift through which the worlds’ energies intermingle…”
“Which caused all the people with strange hair to mutate, just like me?” Mana spoke up, and Stevyn nodded.
“Just so. And we recently noticed an attraction between your ‘Earth’ and another world. Likely the one where those elves came from that you told me about,” Stevyn spoke, then he hesitated a short moment, running his hand over his chin.
“It is much stronger than the regular attraction between worlds, by a factor of billions, and within a few days, it will collide with yours, unless the machine powering this unnatural pull is disabled.”
Seika’s head throbbed as a memory clawed its way out of her mind.
Machines and things that don’t belong. The things that don’t belong feed the machines, and the machines pull on the world fabric. It folds. It folds. It folds. It will return what was lost.
She got torn back out of her memory of Hecate’s vision as Stevyn delivered his conclusion.
“If these worlds collide, it may wipe out both.”
Seika stared out of the window, looking at Romystedt at the foot of the mountain and letting out a long sigh.
“All that to ‘make everyone one with Chaos again’, hm?” she spoke bitterly, turning around and facing Ayame, who stared at the ground.
“Or to kill Arisu,” her wife replied, looking Seika in the eyes. “What now? What can we do?”
“Isn’t that obvious?” Maria interjected, finally getting out of her chair. She strained against her magic shackles, but they still remained securely around her wrists. Hatred burned in her eyes, and for the first time, it wasn’t directed towards Seika or one of her loved ones.
“We smash their little machine! And then we rip out the throat of this ‘emissary’!”
“You aren’t going to do anything but rot in a cell, Maria!” Ayame hissed her way, and the villainess turned her head away, letting out a huff.
“And don’t ever think that I’ll forgive you for what you did to me! Your flimsy excuses that it wasn’t me who you wanted to hurt mean nothing! You tried to kill me right after! You tried to kill Mana!”
“And I won’t ask for forgiveness,” Maria responded, grinning maniacally and leaning towards Ayame. “But that’s not what important right now, is it?”
“Then tell me why I should let you accompany me to destroy that machine?” Seika spoke, crossing her arms in front of her chest as she stared Maria down.
“Well!” the villainess responded with a well-practiced smile, gesturing towards herself with her shackled hands.
“For starters, the High Enchantresses’ world is locked up again, just like it was before the attack, rendering your little witches’ portal magic useless. My scythe can rend the barriers between worlds, but only I can use it. And besides, I know where that machine is located.”
“And what makes you think we’re not goin’ to, like, beat that knowledge out of you and take your damn scythe?” Momo spoke up behind Maria. The villainess let out a long sigh and turned towards the idol.
“You appear to hold a grudge. What did I do to you specifically that I didn’t do to others?”
“You have to ask?!” Momo shouted, and Miyu preemptively held on to her to prevent her from throwing a punch.
“You took Paisen’s face and made her spout cruel crap to me in that dream!” Momo shouted again, and Maria scoffed.
“Oh, please. One bad dream is all it takes? I’ve done a lot worse to…”
She stopped herself as Seika grabbed her shoulder with an iron grip.
“These back-and-forth provocations do nothing but waste our time. Momo, back off! And you, ‘Dream Empress’, how can I be certain that you won’t guide me into a trap?”
Maria faced Seika now and grimaced. She stepped closer and looked directly into Seika’s eyes as she spoke.
“This ‘emissary’, this… bitch! She’s to blame for everything in my life that went wrong! She probably killed my mother! She made my father abuse me! She created my problem, and her twisted family sold me a ‘solution’ without letting me decline! They stole seventeen years of my life, and I’ll make her bleed for every single second of it! I won’t pretend to be your ally or your friend, but you have my word that she is our common enemy!”
This pure hatred was uncomfortably familiar to Seika. She was reminded of the words she screamed as she punched one of Lethe’s bodies to death, and back then she only had eight years to complain about.
“I won’t release your shackles unless it’s absolutely necessary, but you can guide me. That’s my final offer.”
“Fine! Just unleash me when we meet this ‘emissary’, Fames.”
“You can’t be serious, Paisen!” Miyu complained, and Ayame didn’t look thrilled, either. Seika looked at them, one after the other, and shook her head.
“She’s the only one among us who knows where the machine in the High Enchantresses’ world is built. I think letting her guide me is the fastest way. I doubt she’ll just… tell us,” she said, and Maria was gracious enough to confirm her last words with a smug “I won’t.”
“And I’m not going to torture it out of her, either. I’ll go to the High Enchantresses’ world with Maria’s guidance while keeping an eye on her. I’ll destroy the machine and put an end to this madness.”
“And their pathetic little ‘emissary’,” Maria concluded for her, causing Seika to let out a little groan.
“Yes, yes. We’ll get Fames if we encounter her, but our focus should be the machines. And only the machines,” Seika commented with some annoyance and rubbed her forehead.
“So, what now?” Miyu asked, and Seika ruffled her hair.
“I’ll go home, take a hot shower and get dressed in something less conspicuous for the world we’re going to, then I’m off,” Seika confirmed.
“Paisen…” Momo suddenly spoke up and got a little closer.
“I know, I know… we can’t waste time, with our worlds getting closer and colliding soon… I just need a moment to process everything and then I’ll be off to…” Seika started, but Momo put a hand on her shoulder, looking her in the eyes.
“You’ve been up, like, the entire day, yeah? You can’t save the world if you’re, like, keelin’ over.”
“I really shouldn’t….”
“No buts! No excuses! You need to rest! Eight hours at least!” Momo insisted, and Seika grimaced as the idol gave her an unusually stern look that was a little uncharacteristic for the usually so cheerful gyaru.
“Fine. But only eight hours,” Seika grumbled and turned around, looking at Maria.
“I guess I’ll spend another night in a cell,” the villainess commented dryly, and Seika nodded.
“I’m sure Madame Bille will see to it that you’re getting bathed at least,” she commented as she walked past Maria. Now that Momo addressed it, Seika truly felt like falling over, and she’d prefer to do it at home.
***
December 2025
It was unnerving how quickly things were back to ‘normal’. People went missing, and thousands died worldwide, but aside from barrier tape blocking off access to various vanished buildings and Triple-Eye agents poking at the remains of the battle with their sensors, everything looked like usual. Cars drove through the streets, men and women in business attire walked to and from their jobs and the stores were open like usual. Society as a whole felt like it had become utterly numb to the chaos it was regularly subjected to.
Miyu, Momo, Ayame and Arisu accompanied Seika on the way home, where they occasionally stopped to take in the alien sight of the changed Tokyo skyline. News reports were running on every available screen in the city, and their contents sent chills down Seika’s spine.
“Emergency meetings between G7 nations are ongoing, trying to establish an international task force for combating extradimensional threats. Japan’s Prime Minister praised the efforts of the nation’s vigilante Magical Girls, but the United States insist that Magical Girls should undergo a strict vetting process to ensure absolute loyalty to their nations, given that most of them appear to be empowered by alien influences.
“A preliminary organization has already been established in the States, backed by multi-billionaire and entrepreneur Noel Drake’s ‘Triple-Eye’. The first Magical Girl who has undergone the vetting process and thus has the States’ full support to engage in military action against alien threats is Sister Patricia.”
A Magical Girl dressed in a blue nun outfit with red and white accents stepped into view on the TV and started giving a speech, but Seika couldn’t hear what she was talking about, given that Momo immediately had a reaction to her.
“Her! That bitch!” Momo complained, and Seika tilted her head the idol’s way.
“She, uh… denounced us after we came out as a couple,” Miyu said for Momo, giving Seika an apologetic smile.
“We simply ignored her presence, but if things continue down this path, that might not be possible anymore. We’ll likely have to deal with those vetting processes, too, if they really want to go down that route. Since the Celestial Sisters as an entity got tax identification numbers and a mailbox we can’t simply slip away.”
“I hope it won’t come to that,” Seika spoke quietly, then she kept walking towards their apartment as the news switched to a report about supposedly rising Inari worship among otaku after the invasion event.
***
“Are you and your family unharmed, Watanabe?”
Seika immediately called her boss after getting home. Miyu and Momo retreated back into their own apartment for the night, though Momo kept making allusions that she wouldn’t let Seika leave the house until at least seven in the morning, while Ayame and Arisu sat on the couch, further watching the news. There were reports of strange lights and ripples in the air, or glimpses of strange forests and cities, like the people of the world were collectively hallucinating – of course, this was them catching glimpses of the world that was slowly drifting ever closer to Earth.
“I made it home safe after I was freed from the bubbles. And you, Hitoishi? Did you make it through today alright?” Watanabe asked on the other end. Seika signed and checked the calendar before replying.
“I’d like to take the next two days off for a long weekend. I know we are currently swamped with preparations for Comiket, but I promise, I’ll make up for it.”
“Do you really think I’d hold it against you? This was an unprecedented attack. It honestly makes me sick how most people keep going like nothing happened.”
Seika breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing she would want to do was fake being sick to get out of work for long enough to go and visit the other world, no matter how much danger the world was in.
“Thank you, Watanabe. I’ll be off, then.”
“You go and take good care of your own family, you hear me?”
“Of course,” Seika confirmed before she hung up, walking over to Ayame and Arisu. She gently lifted her daughter up and let her sit on her lap, hugging her close while letting Ayame lean her head against her shoulder, remaining like that for an hour longer and watching news reports about the state of the city before it was time for a shower and a bath, then bedtime.
Arisu wanted to sleep in their bed that night, lying between Ayame and Seika, while Seika listened to her soft breathing. Sleep didn’t come easy to her, as her thoughts drifted off towards Miori, hoping for her safety.
“Uhm… thank you,” Mana mumbled towards Stevyn, who looked at her with some bemusement.
“…and sorry! Really! I’m truly sorry!” Marisa added, even bowing in front of the tall man. He had walked the pair home after their meeting in Nicola’s castle, and his eyes took on a surprisingly gentle expression.
“You don’t have to apologize. Filo played us all. And she, in turn, was used. Forced to play us.”
“How do you know?” Mana asked with a raised brow.
“She had a workstation and other necessities when she infiltrated our team. She left a text document titled ‘I’m sorry’ behind that explained everything. Claudia and I read it, but we kept it to ourselves; there’s no way this would make Meryl reconsider your banishment, circumstances be damned.”
“Wait, will you get in trouble if she knows that you came here?” Mana asked with some worry.
“Bah! I can go wherever I please as long as she doesn’t directly ban me from doing it. And helping you avoid your own dimensional collapse benefits us as well, so she should mind her own business,” Stevyn said with a little grin.
“It benefits you? How?” Marisa prodded.
“Well, aside from it being better for our research if there’s more worlds to get artifacts from, there is proof that your world is at the very center of the current cluster of parallel worlds, and if it were to be annihilated, it would destabilize every world connected to it. We are scarily uncertain what would happen in such an event.”
Mana shuddered imagining it. Not just her world, but every world that was currently synchronized with hers could be wiped out? As far as she knew, that was almost every other world, with some exceptions, like Janus’ realms of time travel – and even here she wasn’t sure if they would be spared – not like they housed any life in the first place.
“Your arm…” Marisa asked with some curiosity, breaking the tense silence.
“Oh, yeah,” Stevyn said, as if he himself didn’t realize that it was artificial until now. He lifted his left arm and moved the fingers on his hand one by one to show off its dexterity.
“It’s a life-like synthetic arm. Synthskin, filled with artificial blood vessels and nerves to make it feel warm and let me feel everything I touch. I wanted to get a metallic one that could open, with an arm cannon inside… but Claudia veto’d that…” he spoke with a little sigh, then he laughed.
“In the end I agree with her judgment… as cool as an arm cannon would have been, it’s better for Claudia and our child when my arm is as warm and lifelike as possible.”
Stevyn caught Mana’s incredulous gaze from the corner of his eye and grinned.
“What? If I’ve already lost the arm, I might as well think about the coolest ways to replace it. Is there anything wrong with a man getting something big and flashy? I might still get the arm cannon, the socket is multipurpose, after all…”
Mana kept looking at the tall man with skepticism, though after a few moments passed, she thought about it properly and nodded.
“…guess that would be pretty cool, yeah.”
Moon of Long Nights, 1068 AR
Maria had to admit that for a prisoner, she wasn’t being treated badly. She expected another black prison cell with heavy iron bars and chains that kept her suspended hanging off the walls, just like the one she last remembered being in before she woke up in the middle of Tokyo, only remembering Taenya’s final command that reverberated through her mind: ‘Become the avatar of our vengeance, Maria!’
Instead, she was given a guest room, with powerful spells woven into the walls that resisted any attempts at escape without the leave of the castle’s mistress. Her scythe would probably get her out of here, but she didn’t have it, and as such she was even granted leave to walk around her quarters without the handcuffs.
She enjoyed a soak in the attached bath, avoiding looking at the mirrors behind her. She knew that Ayame’s blade left a deep cut which would now be a scar, given that the High Enchantress, in her anger, neglected her injuries after imprisoning her. Her chances at becoming an actress were zero now, even more so if the Magical Girls had their way and she would stand trial in her home world for everything she had done.
There was a knock at the door.
“Who is it?”
“Ah, uh… dear guest, I am a humble servant of the Madame, and… I left your dinner in your chambers,” a meek voice spoke, and Maria nodded, only realizing a moment later that it was silly to do so.
“Leave it there, then. I’ll eat in a moment.”
“Ah, uh… one more thing… if I may bother you for it…” the meek voice continued, and Maria groaned.
“Whatever… but I can’t hear your mousey little voice through the door. Come in, girl.”
A moment passed during which the other person clearly hesitated, but then the door clicked. The girl who entered was an elf; a young one, at least by their standards. She had a small circular scar on her forehead, where she most likely wore her mind-controlling helmet for a few months and the poisoned needle dug into her skin the entire time. Maria had heard the High Enchantress speculate that the ‘puppeteer’ adopted the unmasked soldiers sent to distract her from Tokyo, like lost little kittens or puppies.
Maria stepped out of the bath, lazily letting the excess water run off her body as she stepped closer to the elf woman who obviously didn’t know where to look before she decided that the bath’s floor tiles were very interesting and deserved to be gazed at.
“So? What do you want to ask?” she spoke and reached out with a hand, running it over the girl’s cheek. She clicked her tongue in disappointment as she realized that whatever magic sealed this room didn’t let her plunge this girl into a dream or trap her in a bubble, resulting in this just becoming an awkward situation of her touching the servant almost seductively.
“R-right… I came here because… you knew Taenya of the Silent Forest?” the girl asked, suddenly looking up into Maria’s eyes, who nodded.
“’Knew’ her, in some ways, yes. What is it to you?”
“She is… was… one of the silent folk. From my village. I think I saw you there, too, before I got… uhm… either way, you know where her body is right now?” the girl stammered, and Maria narrowed her eyes.
Strange. Why does hearing people talk about her make my chest feel tight?
“In the dungeon. The puppeteer is preventing her from rotting with her magic,” Maria answered the girl matter-of-factly.
“There’s also a man who they transported here.”
“Right…! Me and the other… refugees… will take care of the man. We will bury him here, as he would be in the capital, but Taenya… as a member of the silent folk… especially as the chief’s daughter…! There’s something I would ask of you, if you will listen to me…?”
Maria didn’t know what drove her decisions that night. She could have simply sent the girl away or pretended to listen in order to have some fun with her, as she did so often with young hopeful wannabe models.
Instead, she grabbed a towel and restored a modicum of modesty as she wrapped it around herself, leading the girl back to the private chambers, where she sat down at the table. The girl dutifully brought tea as a maid should before she sat down and told Maria what should happen to Taenya’s body, and Maria listened attentively.