"…"
I stared at the bowl of food in front of me. The smell of rice and eggs and bacon was almost too much. I couldn't bring myself to start eating yet. I was sitting at a table with a group of strangers who were watching me like I was a bomb about to go off. Or an alien.
"So," the short redhead girl said, her fingers tapping on the table. "Are you going to tell us who you are?"
"I'm nobody," I said, my voice flat. "Just a girl."
The blonde scoffed. "Nobody? A nobody who the Heroes' Legion would struggle to take down alone?"
"Althea," the Asian girl hissed, jabbing her with an elbow. "Don't antagonize her!"
The redhead sighed and leaned back in her chair. "Look. If you want to keep secrets, that's fine. But you can't just expect us to let you walk around without knowing anything about you. You're dangerous. We need to know if we can trust you."
I looked up, eyes narrowing. "You want to know if you can trust me? Fine. Here's the truth. I don't know where I am, or when I am. I don't know how I got here. I'm probably not going to be here for very long anyway, because I'm going to find a way out of this place, no matter what it takes. And if anyone tries to stop me, I will kill them."
The room went quiet. The four girls looked at me, their faces doing different versions of the same thing.
I picked up my fork and stabbed at the food. "You want to know if you can trust me? Well. Now you know who I am. Do with that what you want."
Food hadn't mattered between worlds. The void kept me running on something worse than calories.
The mission of finding her spark before it was too late was too important.
But the universe is a cruel, cruel bitch. And my stomach chose that moment to growl again.
I gritted my teeth, looking down at the plate.
It was a simple meal. Scrambled eggs and toast. Nothing that would've impressed Kohaku or Kaito. Those two had been stellar in a kitchen.
But it was real food. Not an illusion.
"Reimi?" Maya asked softly. "Is something wrong?"
"…" I swallowed, my throat dry. "No."
I took a bite, chewing slowly. The flavor was ordinary. Light. But it was the best thing I'd tasted in what felt like years.
I couldn't remember how I'd wound up in that coffin, floating in the dark between worlds. I'd finally arrived at a world that wasn't already dead before I got there. I'd... helped them.
Not because I cared about the world itself. Because they were weak. Because they were fragile. Because they needed someone.
And because, maybe, I needed them too.
I'd met a so-called goddess. She'd tracked Momoka's soul for me.
And then —
I took another bite, and swallowed it down.
I looked around the table. They were all so inexperienced. So full of hope and dreams and something I didn't have a word for that I hadn't had in a long time. They were different from the girls I'd known back home. But so similar to them at the same time.
Back… back in a home that was long gone now.
The girl with the red highlights had her arms crossed, rocking her chair onto its back two legs. The blonde was watching me over the rim of a coffee mug, not drinking. Linda kept threading her fingers together and pulling them apart under the table. And Maya —
Maya was next to me, head turned fully my direction, eyes fixed on my face, pleading.
Guh.
She just had to be good at those puppy eyes too, didn't she?
"Are you going to tell us your story or not?" the redhead asked.
"Valentina," Linda said softly, laying a hand on her shoulder.
"No, Linda. I'm tired of this. We've been here for an hour and all she's done is sit there and eat. We don't know who she is, or where she's from. Althea has been cooking up a storm, and she's not even going to tell us her name?"
"Leave her alone," Althea snapped, slamming a tray of bacon onto the table. "If she wanted to talk, she would have. She's clearly going through something. Give her some space."
The redhead snorted. "Whatever. I'm going to the washroom."
She got up and stalked out of the room, leaving us in an uncomfortable silence.
"I should go check on Val," Linda murmured, rising. "She gets touchy sometimes. I'm sorry for her behavior, Reimi."
"It's fine," I said, not looking at her. "I don't blame her for being suspicious. Or you for jamming that spear against my neck."
Linda hesitated, then nodded and followed Val out.
I took a sip of strawberry milk, my eyes on the table. Althea sighed and sat across from me, looking at the bacon.
"Sorry about that. They're just worried. We've never seen anyone like you before."
"I know," I said. "I'm not like you. I'm not from here."
Althea raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"I mean I'm not from this —" I paused. "World? Timeline. This universe. Something." I took a breath. "I don't belong here."
Althea frowned but didn't say anything. Maya looked at me, eyes wide.
"Where... where did you say you're from?" she asked.
"…" I stared at the glass of milk in front of me. The condensation made my fingers feel damp.
"My world was destroyed. By something we called the Azure Blight. Everything and everyone I knew was devoured. The only reason I survived is because I was already on the run, trying to escape the System. There was an experiment."
"An experiment?"
"A horrible one. It's hard to explain. It turned girls like us into living weapons. Living weapons with no control over what we did, or who we hurt. I was one of those weapons. And whoever was running it unleashed the Blight onto the world."
I paused.
"Was it… was it related to the monsters you saved us from?" Althea asked, her voice gentle.
"…"
I looked at her, eyes narrowed. "It's complicated. And it's something that doesn't exist here. So, it doesn't matter. What does matter is that the Blight came, and it destroyed my world, and I'm the only one who survived. Now I don't know where I am, or why I'm here. All I know is that I need to leave before it's too late."
Althea and Maya exchanged a look, and then a door slammed open.
"Hey! You guys! You won't believe what's on the news!"
Linda burst back in, her face flushed. Valentina was right behind her, looking equally flustered.
"What's wrong?" Maya asked. "Is it more monsters?"
"No," Linda said, shaking her head. "Something else."
"What?" Althea asked.
"Us. We're all over the news. Hang on!"
She lunged for a remote and flicked on the TV mounted over the dining table.
And there I was. A blurry shot of the four girls hauling my unconscious, ichor-soaked body up out of the metro station. Then another — a still of the five of us in our transformed states. I'd been caught in profile, my weapon raised. The girls were in the foreground, facing outward in a tight circle.
"Wait, is that us?!" Maya exclaimed. "Holy moly, we look badass! Look at my hair! It's so cool!"
"We're famous," Linda breathed. "We're actually famous."
"This is not good," Althea murmured. "This is so very not good."
"Why not?" Valentina asked. "This is awesome! We're heroes! We're celebrities! We're gonna be rich!"
Althea pursed her lips and pointed. "Read the bottom scroll, Val."
The scrolling text at the bottom read: "Turnpike Dungeon collapses after unsanctioned Sentinel raid. Association officials have yet to comment on the destruction of the Dungeon. All portals located along the Turnpike Underground have reportedly terminated overnight."
"Oh." Valentina's eyes widened. "Oh, shit."
"Yeah," Althea sighed. "We're not going to get a reward for this."
"Okay, but the monsters!" Maya protested. "They were going to kill us, right, Reimi? Maybe they'll understand that it was an accident!"
Linda snorted. "The Association? Understand? They're the most powerful organization in the world. They're not going to give a shit about what we have to say. They're just going to see a bunch of kids who ruined their plans and decide to make an example out of us."
Althea rubbed her forehead. "Val's right. This isn't going to end well for us."
The reporter was talking about the "destruction" of the "Turnpike Dungeon" and how it was a "tragedy."
"I don't understand why it's such a big deal," Maya said. "It's just a dungeon. There are thousands of them all over the world."
"I mean it wasn't just a dungeon," Althea said, twirling her long blonde hair around one finger. "It was a new one and a big one. And it was in our backyard so... a lot of people were going to make a lot of money off of it."
"…" I looked back at the TV, brow furrowing. "What are these dungeons to you, anyway? Why are they so important?"
Everyone looked at me. Then at each other. Then back at me.
"You really don't know anything about this world, do you?" Valentina asked, voice soft.
"I know it exists. That's about it. I know you're all Magical Girls, and I've figured out that the Association is your ruling body. That's all I know."
"Wow," Althea breathed. "Okay. That's a lot. But alright. Dungeons are massive underground labyrinths that the Association controls. They're full of monsters and treasure. They're where we get most of our magical items and power-ups."
"Yup," Linda sighed. "The one you collapsed — the Association calls it Lenapehoking, the news is calling it Turnpike — had only opened up about a week ago. The mana readings from it were intense. But we only found a few regular goblins on the first few floors, which is why we thought it was safe to scout. The Association usually takes months to clear a dungeon that big. Years, for the deep ones. People in town were already counting the money."
The girls all turned to look at me. My eyes were on the TV, where the reporter was talking about the Association sending a representative to investigate the incident.
"How and why did you collapse the portal, anyway?" Althea asked.
I shrugged. "I felt like it."
Valentina bristled. "You felt like it? Do you have any idea what you've done? How much trouble we're in?"
"I saved your lives," I said, voice cold. "I killed hundreds of those creatures if not thousands of them. And if you think the ones you fought were the worst of it, you're wrong. Those were scouts. Testing the boundaries of reality. If I hadn't destroyed that portal, the cities nearby would've been overrun inside a month. Everyone you love would be dead. So, yes. I felt like it."
Nobody spoke.
The only sound was the ticking of a clock and the quiet murmur of the TV. The four of them were staring at me, each face doing a different thing and none of them good.
I shrugged again and chugged the rest of the strawberry milk.