“Alright, good job everyone, let’s wrap things up!” Mr. Steward said to the Theater Club. The cast and crew broke apart to put away equipment and head out. Wooden caught Salmacis before she could leave to say, “Great job with the music! Good thing you went back to get your flute, right?”
“Yeah…” Salmacis smiled nervously. She appreciated the compliment, but…. “Getting it was… interesting.”
Wooden laughed, not quite understanding the comment. “Well, I’m going to stay here and get some more stuff cleaned up. See you tomorrow!”
“See you!” Salmacis left Wooden to her work. If she ignored the craziness in the morning, this had been a good day. Maybe things would turn out alright. Maybe Jaja-chan would find someone else to be a “mahout shojou.” Someone who actually wanted the job. By the time Salmacis was walking down the halls, she had almost entirely convinced herself that, without any doubt, when she next saw Jaja-chan he would tell her that picking her was a terrible mistake and that he was sorry for all the stress he had caused. Ah, there he was right now, running to her. Soon this whole mess would all be in the past.
“There you are!” Jaja-chan shouted. “You need to come with me right now! I sense a fragment of the Glitch nearby!”
Well so much for getting out of this. Salmacis quietly sighed, and asked, “Where is it?”
“In the theater room! Hurry!”
“But I was just in the….” Jaja-chan had already run past her. Internally Salmacis debated whether following him was the right thing, but her feet started following after Jaja-chan immediately.
Salmacis had been preparing to find the theater room in chaos. Instead, it looked the same as she’d left it. Maybe a little emptier, since everyone else had gone home. Certainly no Pawns or hints of anything magical. Jaja-chan scurried around the room, peeking into every corner. “It’s around here somewhere… I can feel it….” He muttered.
Salmacis was content to let him search. Honestly she wasn’t entirely clear on why she needed to be here. If Jaja-chan could sense the pieces of the Glitch, why couldn’t he just run around and find them all? Recruiting a young girl to wave a magical staff around and shoot laser beams didn’t seem that necessary, all things considered. Surely he’d realize that as well. This was going to be when he decided to let her stop being a mahout shojou. Any second now. Bound to happen.
The footsteps behind her nearly made Salmacis scream. She swung around, wielding her backpack like a mighty shield to defend herself from the Pawn attack which was surely coming for her. But instead of a Pawn, the Wooden Girl was behind her. Right! Wooden had stayed behind! Salmacis laughed at her overreaction. “Sorry, you startled me.”
Wooden didn’t respond. Or at least, she didn’t respond with words. Her mouth opened. And then it opened more. And then even more, like an expanding black hole in her face. The noise she made could have been called a scream, but it sounded more like the noise a giant robot bear battling hundreds of ostriches would make. Wooden’s eyes turned into red flowers, from which small flying spiders emerged.
Amidst the terrible noise coming from Wooden, Salmacis couldn’t hear her own screams. When she saw Wooden growing a third, elongated and spindly arm out of her back, she turned and ran for the door. Wooden leapt impossibly high over her, and landed in her path. Wooden’s arms turned into violet striped claws, which she used to slash at Salmacis.
“What’s going on?” Salmacis sobbed as she fell back from the attack.
“She’s been possessed by the Glitch!” Jaja-chan said. “Quickly! You must transform to save her!”
“I don’t know how!” She shouted as she stumbled from another of Wooden’s attacks. “It just happened on its own last time!”
“You must hold aloft your staff and recite the magical chant!”
“I have to WHAT?”
“Grab your flute and say ‘Magical Transformation-desu!’”
“Why does the chant sound so lame?”
“Look are you going to argue with the magical talking cat or are you going to do it?”
With terror and embarrassment fighting for emotional dominance, Salmacis pulled out the Glitch-infected flute and whispered, “Magical transformation-desu….” There was a bright flash of blue light, and she had once again become a magical girl!
Wooden attacked again, firing exploding bees out of her palms, but Salmacis flew over them. When Wooden tried leaping up to attack her, Salmcis blasted her away with an energy beam. “Sorry! I’m so sorry!” She yelled at her fallen friend. Wooden didn’t seem to care, and tried launching more bees at Salmacis. As she dodged the exploding insects, Salmacis said to Jaja-chan, “How do I fix her?”
“You must use your special finishing move!”
“And how do I do that?”
“Point your staff at her and say something magical sounding?”
“Something… magical sounding?”
“Well since you so clearly didn’t like my transformation chant, let’s see if you can come up with something better!”
Salmacis aimed her magical staff at Wooden and stuttered, “Magical… um… magical….”
“Not so easy, is it?”
“Quiet, I’m thinking! Magical… um…. Magical Heart Laser Beam!” A blue heart shaped beam of energy fired from her staff, striking Wooden. When the energy beam dissipated, Wooden was lying on the ground, her body back to normal. When she didn’t open her eyes, Salmacis flew down and started shaking her. “Wooden! Are you okay? Come on Wooden, wake up!”
Wooden sleepily opened her eyes. “Salmacis…?”
Salmacis hugged her friend. “Oh thank god, I thought I’d hurt you! I’m so sorry about this!”
“Salmacis… “Wooden struggled to speak. “That was…. The coolest thing ever!” Wooden broke out of Salmacis’ embrace so she could leap to her feet. “You were flying around and shooting laser beams and look at that outfit it’s so cute why didn’t you tell me you could do magic that’s so awesome!!!”
“Um….” Salmacis was completely unprepared to deal with this enthusiasm. She looked to Jaja-chan for some kind of assistance as he sauntered over. A second shining glass ball had appeared on his collar.
“Very good job, Salmacis.” He said with a smugness that only a cat can pull off. “I told you that you could do it.”
“And you have a talking cat!” Wooden nearly squealed with delight. “That’s amazing!”
“Why yes, I am amazing.” Jaja-chan purred at the compliment.
“Come on Salmacis, you have to tell me about all your magical adventures!” Wooden said as she grabbed Salmacis’ hand. Whether she liked it or not, Salmacis was getting the feeling she was going to be stuck with this job for longer than she’d hoped….
No comments:
Post a Comment