I slapped my hand down on the alarm, killing the noise, and worked my 
mouth to get rid of the taste of sleep. I blinked into the light 
through my window, hoisted myself out of bed and stretched, thinking 
through what Koi had told me.

Not a whole lot, on reflection. I grunted in annoyance as I got into 
the shower (an experience I still wasn't totally comfortable with.) I 
got dressed, grabbed a quick bite, then headed for the office. 
Mentally, I started listing "important things to find out." Ramsbottom 
was still a mystery. Worse, actually, now that Koi had implied that 
there might be more than one of him.

I stopped that line of thought. I was asleep; it was a dream... But it 
had _felt_ real.

I shook my head and shifted thoughts about what I'd do in the coming 
day as I parked my car and walked up to the office. Ironically, there 
wasn't much I _could_ actively do. With Akari Nazo out of the way, 
along with her henchmen and a number of smaller antagonists, life 
lacked direction.

"Hey! I was wondering when you were gonna show up!" I heard when I 
entered the office. I almost turned around and left. This was one 
problem I didn't need right now. But it was my office, and he was 
sitting at my chair with his feet up on my desk and - to break the 
camel's back - he was fiddling with one of my guns.

"Any reason I shouldn't kill you right now?" I asked.

          -----------------------------------------
          ImproFanfic Presents --

         - M A G I C A L   G I R L   H U N T E R S -

                Episode 36: From Far Distance

                       By Damien Roc

             Original Concept by Aaron Shattuck

          -----------------------------------------

"All right, Devonshire, get outta my chair." I pulled off my coat and 
started heading around my desk. "And speak Japanese while you're here."

He swung up and hopped away, spinning and executing a mock bow. "Of 
course, it was rude of me." He rose to full height and studied me. "I'd 
heard rumors, but damn, you really did go for 'the change.'" He stood a 
few centimeters taller than me. His long greying hair was pulled back 
into a pony-tail and his salt, pepper, 'n' paprika goatee shaded his 
easy grin.

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. Not surprise that he would have heard 
anything about me - despite about 10,000 miles separating us Devonshire 
and I were roughly in the same line of work - but rather that any 
specifics about me would have traveled that far.

You see, magical girls are an almost exclusively Japanese phenomenon. 
Devonshire was from the US. Things were slightly different there. We 
had magical girls, they had superheroes. And, like Japan, the heroes 
had become more of a problem than a solution.

In a way, I respected. While the population of superheroes wasn't as 
high (per capita) as magical girls, they were a hell of a lot harder to 
kill. One had to be creative, resilient, intelligent and really 
determined to take one out. I know, one decided to try and muscle into 
some magical girl turf a while back, and Itami and I had to take it 
out.

Or tried to, rather. That's where we met Devonshire, who was working a 
contract to take out the guy and had followed him to Japan. He'd been 
helpful back then, working rather well with us, and even went so far as 
to pick up some conversational Japanese for communicating better.

"I'm amazed at you, Yoi. You're a chick, and you still manage to pick 
up a babe of a secretary." He said, breaking me out of my reverie. He 
leered at Veracity, who blushed and turned away, studiously reading the 
newspaper upside down.

Of course, no matter how helpful he'd been didn't change the fact he 
was an egotistical bastard at heart. I hadn't been sad to see him go, 
and would have liked to never see him again. Itami had liked him even 
less.

"Okay, Devonshire. What do you want? You didn't show up here just to 
visit, I hope. I'm rather busy."

"No shit you're busy. This whole 'fateless' thing would keep anyone 
busy."

"How the hell do you know about that?" I glared at him.

He cocked his head at me. "Now, now, Yoi, I'm not without my own 
resources of information. Perhaps there's something I could help you 
out with in that regard."

I gritted my teeth. I'd heard that sort of line plenty of times before. 
Help is never without a price. "What do you need?"

"Dinner and a movie?"

"Veracity?" I asked, turning away from him. "Any calls? Appointments? 
Jobs?"

I could just _feel_ Devonshire smile. "Ah, serious as ever, Yoi. That's 
what I liked about you. Now, there's more..."

Veracity gave me a pained look. "I'm sorry, Kurasaka-san. Not yet this 
morning."

"Great. Well..." I stood up and went over to the coffee maker. While it 
brewed I turned back to Devonshire. "You've got five minutes. Talk."

He sighed, shoulders dropping. "Fine... No fun anymore. Anyway, one of 
'my guys' jumped ship a few days back. I think he's come here."

"So? Go find him. It's not my contract." The last thing I wanted to do 
was get involved with one of Devonshire's marks. Homicidal pre-teens 
with heavy weaponry are one thing...

"Two weeks ago I get a contract to take out Hyper Man. He's moderately 
powerful. More importantly, he's high profile. He's not really a 
problem, but I guess he crossed someone one too many times. I started 
to track him down - it shouldn't have been hard - but less than a day 
later Hyper Man disappeared. For him to be out of the limelight for, 
oh, three hours is an odd happening."

"So he came here." 

"I think he's here, but I haven't gotten any leads yet."

"So why are you still around, if it's a dead end."

Devonshire grimaced. "Instinct. Common sense says I should leave... 
I've got competition back home, and five days outta the country isn't 
helping. But my gut tells me he's here."

"What do you want me to do about it?"

"Help me find him."

"No," I said, "Not my contract. Get lost."

"Yoi, please. I've been here a week. Come up with zilch."

"No."

"You don't even have to fight him. Just help me find him."

"That's it?" It seemed almost too easy.

"That's it. We find him, I take him out. No problem." He paused. "I'll 
pay you ahead of time. This time tomorrow."

"Fine. Normal rates for a hit. Extra if he attacks us or this takes 
longer than 36 hours to pan out."

"It's a pleasure doing business with you." He bowed, turned on a heel, 
and almost marched out.

Five minutes later, Itami showed up.

"Devonshire showed up," I told him.

"Right." He could have meant "When can I rip his throat out?"

"I'm going to help him find a guy. Get him out of the country, soon."

Itami was silent for a while. My thoughts drifted away. I thought about 
Devonshire. He wasn't young, forty-five at the most. Despite his line 
of work, the years had treated him quite well. Or perhaps because of 
his line of work. But he'd been doing it for a long time. I remembered 
the number of times he'd said "rookie" or "kid" back when we first met.

Thunk. The dart hit the board and pulled me back to reality. "Need any 
backup?"

I thought for a moment. Having Itami along would be nice. Having Itami 
and Devonshire go at each other wouldn't be. Pros and cons went to war 
in my head. "Nah," I said eventually, "I'll cover it."

"Okay." That meant "Yes! I don't have to see that bastard again." and, 
probably "Damn you for not having more faith in me."

***

It was actually somewhat refreshing to set out to search for Hyper Man, 
a bit like the old days when Itami and I had to find our quarry 
somewhere in the greater Tokyo area. Sure, we'd usually be contracted 
to take out a magical girl who'd been terrorizing some place specific, 
but there was the occasional "I don't know where she is, but I want her 
dead" contract.

It actually came down to doing the normal thing for finding out where 
someone is. Drop a few questions in the right places. Pad a few hands 
and see what comes out of the respective mouth. It's boring, somewhat 
tedious, and doesn't always work out. It's doubly difficult if the 
person involved doesn't want to be found. It took us three days of 
hefty searching, but we eventually got a solid lead.

"That is so not like him," Devonshire said. We were standing outside 
the building that Hyper Man was purportedly inside.

"You think he's alone in there?"

"He's not known for playing well with others, but it has happened 
before." Devonshire threw his cigarette on the ground and stubbed it 
out with his foot. 

"Well, good luck on that. You need a ride anywhere before I head back 
to the office?"

"No." He flashed me a smile. "Pleasure doing business with you again, 
Yoi. Want to go further?"

"Goodbye, Devonshire," I said. "Don't stay too long." Before I started 
the car, I shivered. I didn't need another guy hitting on me. Ugh. 
Since it was getting late, I headed home for the night.

***

"Hello, Kurasaka-san," Veracity greeted me. "You have two calls this 
morning. One is from Doctor Nakazawa. And a Mr. Yokoi called asking for 
a meeting this afternoon."

"About a contract?"

"Yes, I believe so."

I smiled. "Great." I picked up the phone and dialed up the Doc.

"Yoi! Good to hear from you," he said after I got through his 
secretary.

"Hey, Doc, I've got a bit of a problem..." I explained the whole 
situation with Aika, and pressured him into an afternoon appointment. 
Next I needed to get Aika. I dialed her house, hoping that her parents 
weren't home.

After four rings it picked up. "Hello, Fukamori residence."

"Aika. Can you come by, soon?"

"Yoi! Sure. I just got back from visiting my parents. They're doing 
pretty well."

I scanned through the paper while waiting for Aika to show. Current 
events aren't really my thing, but it helps to keep tabs on what goes 
on. On occasion, one can hazard a guess at where magical girl activity 
might turn up next. Not that Itami and I would go out there to take 
them down without a contract, but sometimes the clients wouldn't 
surprise us.

Aika showed up in a somewhat cheery demeanor. I guess that she was 
feeling less of a burden compared to the past several months. 

"I got an appointment for you at that magical girl specialist," I said. 
That dampened her spirits somewhat. "I think this is for the best, 
Aika. At least give him a chance and talk to him, okay?"

"Okay," she said. Her smile looked forced.

"Veracity, I'm going out. I'll go meet up with that client. Tell Itami 
I'll be by later to pick him up for the job."

"Very good, Kurasaka-san."

***

"We've tried to enact our own measures of security, but they don't 
stop, Miste... er Miss Kurasaka." I didn't like Mr. Yokoi. He whined. 
He was a middle manager for a computer systems company. His few 
remaining hairs were ludicrously trying to cover his sweat-sheened 
pate.

"It's Mister."

The company was in a drab, gray building in the middle of an industrial 
park, with typical corporate security: guarded gates, barbed wire, I.D. 
locks, you name it. Not cheap stuff, but not really designed to stop 
anything supernatural in origin.

"Er... Yes, of course."

"What exactly have they been doing?" I asked.

"They've, uh, been complaining about how boring we are."

"What?"

"Maybe it's better I show you." He stood up and led me out of the 
office and to the rear of the building. "They're the Shining Happy 
People, and production has been down ever since they started a week 
ago." He opened the back door of the building and gestured me outside.

I was... amazed. A more garish, gaudy display of color I hadn't seen in 
quite some time. It was completely at odds with the front of the 
building. At first I thought someone might have dumped paint over 
everything, but on closer inspection, the colors themselves had 
beenchanged. Red, blue, pink, yellow, and green. Everwhere. Bright, 
glossy and painfully sickening.

"The Shining Happy People?"

He nodded. "They hold hands and fire those wands of color. We're 
worried they might get inside and ruin the equipment."

I smiled. "They won't be a problem tomorrow."

I cruised around for a few minutes. Actually finding the Shining Happy 
People was easy. Their choice of decor stood out in the area, and it 
concentrated at an old warehouse. I headed back to the office to pick 
up Itami and some gear.

"This'll be a cakewalk," I told him on the way back.

***

"You want to go straight through the middle?" I asked when we were 
outside the warehouse.

Itami fiddled with a throwing knife, checking the edge. "Whatever 
works."

"The middle it is. Ready?"

"Let's go."

"Yoi?" We spun around, bringing our weapons up. I didn't fire. Itami 
threw the knife. It sailed past Devonshire's head.

"Jesus, you guys are hair triggers!" Devonshire shook a little. He was 
hunched down slightly. Hairs drifted down from his head to the ground.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I asked. "You should be long gone 
by now."

"Hyper Man wasn't there anymore. I tracked him here." He pointed at the 
warehouse behind us.

"Here... but that's where the Shining Happy People are."

"Wait." Devonshire cocked his head. "You guys have a target here? This 
might not bode well."

My mind started whirring. "Why would an American superhero seek out a 
bunch of magical girls."

"Might want to take this one careful," Itami commented.

"Itami and I are covered pretty well, what about you?"

"I've got my own person choice right here." Devonshire opened a 
hardcase he was carrying and quickly assembled something. He patted the 
weapon affectionately.

"It's very... long," I managed to get out. Indeed, what  Devonshire now 
carried was long. Not quite a meter and a half, it had three barrels, 
two obvious magazines (one quite stubby, and linked to a large barrel, 
the other thin and long, feeding to a normal rifle sized one) and a 
humming power source.

"Specially designed for me. Got 35 burst fire armor piercing rounds 
here, a 4 grenade clip with alternating high explosive and anti-
vehicular rounds, and, just in case something really bad comes along, 
ten shots of pure plasma." He pointed out the power source leading to 
the third barrel. "You guys should really get a custom job like this. 
It makes things easier. Especially with how tough the targets get after 
a while."

Heroes get tougher over time? I wondered. Devonshire had said it 
nonchalantly, but there was something beneath that in his voice. 

"We do fine with what we have," I answered. "We're not going to get our 
jobs done out here. Let's go."

The three of us entered in a small side entrance. The lights in our 
area of the warehouse were out, but off in one corner they were on. Old 
crates covered in worn tarps were organized into rows. From the 
direction of the lights I heard voices. We crept in that direction, 
providing cover for each other and moving in spurts. When we were two 
rows away, Itami broke off to circle around and get closer. I motioned 
Devonshire to take point. Itami I trusted to watch my back, not him. He 
opened his mouth as if to ask a question, but shrugged and led the way 
in.

We came around the last crates to an area somewhat cleared of debris 
and obstacles. The sight that greeted us did not reassure me. "I 
thought you said he came alone," I hissed at Devonshire.

"I thought he did. Geez, look at all of them. The Mathematician, 
Insanity Lad, Mistress Fantasy, damn, even Ranger Ravage. He's always 
been a loner." 

The names didn't mean anything, but I assume that we weren't facing 
flyweight superheroes. It didn't look good on the magical girl end, 
either. There was a quintet in bright solid colors, holding hands that 
I assumed were the Shining Happy People. There had to be close to 10 
different magical girls, all sitting quietly looking up at an 
assemblage on a makeshift stage. A man in a skintight neon green body 
suit with the letters "HM" emblazoned in hot pink on the chest was 
talking. He was animated, pacing back and forth, sentences running 
together.

"Umm... Yoi. Who's that little girl in the back smoking a cigar?" I 
looked. Sure enough, amidst a rather localized concentration of smog 
was a magical girl in a cross between a fuku and biker garb, complete 
with piercings, greasy hair, and a half-burned stogie.

"Er... I don't know." 

I looked at the other figures on stage. At least six different heroes, 
I assume, in various costumes. I confess the females were quite 
attractive, but what caught my eye was an robed individual off to the 
side. She didn't seem to be a superhero, and was too old to be one of 
the girls. I puzzled over it. "Magical women?"

"What? That doesn't sound good."

"Simple concept. After a while magical girls grow up. They get more 
powerful and more skilled."

"Harder to kill."

"Yeah, something like that."

"I've had a bit of a problem like that myself." He nodded. "So, you 
want to drop out of this one for now? Get them later? I'm easy either 
way."

I glanced over to where Itami waited. He sort of melded with the 
shadows. He looked right at us. I gave him a questioning look. He 
shrugged and brought up a throwing knife. We probably should have 
turned around. Definitely prudent, but, dammit, if Devonshire could do 
something like this, so could I.

"Nope. We're here now." I pulled out my .44 Desert Eagle and stepped 
around the crates, drawing aim on Shining Happy Person Green - farthest 
away from Itami. She did a nice impression of a Christmas ornament 
(green and red). As I shifted my aim to Shining Happy Person Yellow, 
Itami's knife met up with Shining Happy Person Red's forehead. That's 
about as far as we got before chaos ensued.

Next to me, Devonshire's gun roared. The fifteen or so remaining 
magical girls and superheroes spun around to face us and...

And we were bombarded by calls of justice, love, cuteness, color, and 
creed. (I think I also heard "the square of the hypotenuse..." but I 
can't be totally sure). It made, on the whole absolutely no sense. But, 
since they weren't actually attacking us yet, we took the opportunity 
to plug a few more.

A 12 year old in a pastel apron popped up in front of me. "Hey, I know 
you," she said, pulling up short and pointing her... Yes, they were 
oversized chopsticks. "In the name of dignified fast food everywhere, 
I..." I stopped Sailor Takeout's speech with a round to the forehead.

The people up on stage finally got their act together and managed to 
get some idea about defenses. If I were them, my first order of 
business would have been to save my own skin, but apparently all those 
nummy thoughts didn't work well with survival logic.

It made things more difficult for us. A few girls managed to return 
fire. A couple shut up and actually aimed. Reluctantly, we were forced 
to withdraw.

"It always this fun for you?" Devonshire panted when we could stop for 
a breather. "It's nice to see someone go down easy, for once."

"You take down your mark?" I returned.

He opened his mouth to answer, but then a crate a couple meters away 
exploded. The force of it threw him on top of me, sending us sprawling 
in a heap. I struggled to push him away and get a shot off at this 
threat, but nothing came through the cloud of dust.

Devonshire rolled off of me. "Sorry about that. Not quite as young as I 
used to be. Sometimes they get the drop on me."

I didn't like the sound of that. Devonshire looked, for a moment, like 
a man trying to hold off a flood; a man who just barely survived 
anymore and took what victories came his way.

"We should split up," he said. "You guys can bail if you need. I can 
take it from here."

"I think we missed one."

"Ah, well. Good luck." He stood up, brushed himself off, then swung 
around the crates and started firing. It took me a moment to realize he 
was wading back _in_ to the magical girls and superheroes. I wondered 
if insanity set in after doing a job like this for so long.

"Hey, can you spare a joint?"

"What?" I turned around. And had to look down to see whom was speaking. 
A breath of the polluted air made me cough reflexively. It was the girl 
halfway between 'magical' and 'biker'.

"You got a joint?" She had smoker's growl. On an 11 year old, that's a 
disturbing trait.

"Who are you?" I couldn't see any weapon on her, at least none pointed 
my way. She leaned against a crate, fiddling with the last remains of a 
cigarette.

"They call me 'Lovely Lieutenant Diesel' but that don't mean much."

"You aren't worried about me killing you."

"Nah. There ain't much to live for. World's fucked up as it is."

"So why are you here?"

"It passes the time." She started to walk away. "Seeya. Have fun on 
your job."

I shook my head. She wasn't cute. Wasn't lovely. Didn't have any of the 
good'n'nummy thoughts of other magical girls...

Something shrieked above me. "He's over here!" I looked up to see a 
off-white and golden yellow eagle, flapping to stay in place and 
looking down at me. "Come o..." I cut off any further calls with a shot 
from the Desert Eagle. The bird evaporated, falling to the ground in a 
hissing splash.

"EEEK! You killed my friend!" I turned to face the girl whose familiar 
I'd presumably just killed. She had the same off-white and golden 
yellow coloration to her costume, but it wasn't a fuku, instead some 
combination of draped fabrics covered her body... Except they stuck to 
her. Something covered her, from her bare feet to her slicked-back 
hair, and she positively gleamed. Almost nothing was left to the 
imagination, but her posture destroyed any hints of sexuality.

For instance, she had one hand balled up in a fist and held to her 
mouth. The other pointed at me accusingly and shook.

"For that, I, uh..." she stammered as I brought the gun around on her. 
"I Pretty Warrior Creamy Spread must punish you."

"Do tell?" I sent a round through her head by way of her fist. Her body 
rocked back, then her head snapped forward as a jet of fluid pressured 
its way out of the bullet's exit hole. She hit the ground almost 
perfectly straight.

The laughter sent a chill up my spine. I spun around and looked up. 
Perched on the edge of the crate was a boy. I think it was a boy at any 
rate. He was small, didn't have much muscle tone, just a baggy somewhat 
drab one 
piece suit. And that grin. Something made me want to erase that grin 
from existence, so I did.

Or I tried. The bullets traversed the path that should have taken them 
right through the lower part of the guy's head, but said head didn't 
wait for impact.

I felt heavy breathing on my ear. "Oh, that's nice. I like it when they 
fight." Something pressed up against me and he grabbed... dammit, no he 
_groped_ me.

I snapped. Jokes, comments, even pointing fingers I could take, but 
this... this violated. My right arm snapped back, releasing a 'whuff' 
from him. I whipped my arm up and jammed my gun into his throat.

"Gurk," he commented. I double tapped. His body jerked and let go of 
me, sliding to the floor.

I sprinted down to the far end of the row to get a glimpse on the area. 
I hadn't seen Itami in the past few minutes. I wanted to...

Everything went all misty. I heard the words "What is your desire?" 
breathed upon my ear.

There was something fundamentally wrong about what I saw; what I felt. 
But I couldn't pin it down, and, I noticed, I was a guy again and... 
Nobody wanted anything to do with me. In the morning, I wouldn't have 
to go into work, because there were no magical girls to worry about - 
they were all gone.

Devonshire could deal with his problem for decades on end. Me, I'd 
succee...

It ended. I felt a hand slide off my shoulder and something landed in a 
heap at the back of my feet. I shuddered, it had all felt so perfect. 
The woman slumped over backwards on the floor, one of Itami's throwing 
knives lodged in her throat. I looked up at him.

"Something seemed wrong when you grabbed your crotch."

"We get all the Shining Happy People?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Missed one."

"Damn. I hate unfinished business."

"Let's find her."

Devonshire had done a fairly good job of clearing the area out. What 
magical girls that weren't dead had split.

Death isn't ever clean, but I couldn't help but think of the work as 
'sloppy'. Bullet holes traced across bodies. Excessive shells on the 
ground. I counted at least three spent magazines. This wasn't the work 
of a trained killer... No. It was the work of a trained killer, but one 
who was working in desperation. Maybe I had been wrong. Maybe age 
hadn't treated Devonshire well.

We came across Shining Happy Person Blue amidst the bodies of the other 
four. She was leaned over Shining Happy Person Pink, gently stroking 
her face, which was oddly unmarred by carnage. Only a small splash of 
blood dotted her cheek.

"We're the reason you're doing this, right?" Shining Happy Person Blue 
said, rising to her feet. And... I realized she wasn't female. None of 
the Shining Happy People had the traditional fukus on, but skintight 
costumes of any sort don't leave gender up to the imagination. And, 
despite his lack of development, Shining Happy Person Blue was 
definitely the proud owner of 'X' and 'Y'.

"If it will make you stop, then kill me, I'm ready." He stood up 
straight.

I shrugged. "Fine. Easy it is." Itami and I brought our guns up.

"Hold hands," he whimpered.

"Stop! I cannot allow you to harm that girl." Itami and I both fired, 
but something moved into the paths. "She is under my protection," Hyper 
Man said, posing dramatically with hands on hips.

"Hey! Gaijin, I'm a _boy_!"

"Why do you do these evil acts? Can you not see the good in my plans?" 
I hadn't realized how big he was. He towered above the pair of us, 
completely blocking our shots of Shining Happy Person Blue.

I fired off two more shots. He ignored them. "Why do you not 
understa..." Hyper Man's words were cut off when his upper body 
exploded.

"Heh. About time you showed up, you bastard." Devonshire stepped out. 
He gave us a grin. "You can finish your job now, guys. I left the 
little pip-squeak for you."

"Considerate of you." I gave him a lopsided smile.

"Jack! Why did you follow me here?" Hyper Man emerged from the cloud of 
smoke very much in one piece and knocked both Itami and I down in a 
heap.

Itami and I scrambled to our feet and unloaded our guns into Hyper Man. 
He didn't even glance at us. What did it take to knock the guy down?

"Why, Jack?" he asked. " You've never bothered before. I thought you 
understood the great mission."

Devonshire brought out his gun. Faster than I could see, Hyper Man was 
next to him, knocking it away. It clattered a few meters away. "It's 
just business," Devonshire said, backpedaling. "Nothing personal."

"Do you not see my plan? It is to help all human kind, powered and non. 
It is for freedom, for equality. For safety and mutual bonds." He had 
Devonshire backed up against a crate. Hyper Man raised a hand and 
pointed to the sky. "I am fighting for Truth! For Justice! FOR THE 
AMERICAN WAY!"

"You're in Japan." I pressed Devonshire's gun against the side of Hyper 
Man's neck and pulled the trigger. It blew him away. No, he didn't 
explode, he flew away, punching a nice hole in the side of the 
warehouse.

I was blown back, too. I hit the ground and my butt felt like it had 
been jammed up to my shoulders.

Devonshire stared straight out, his eyes the only white of his entire 
face. Hair had been burnt back across the entire front of his forehead. 
He let out a small cough, and his shirt disintegrated. "Fuck, Yoi, 
that's not a close range weapon."

"Argh..." I rolled over and pushed myself to my feet. Every step sent a 
jolt of pain up my spine. "I thought... it was an emergency." I heard a 
repeat as Itami took out Shining Happy Person Blue.

"I think I'm blind, dammit."

Our conversation was interrupted by clapping. Clapping and the sound of 
high heels on a concrete floor. I looked towards the sound and saw an 
abbreviated cape of some very thin, sheening material. I recognized the 
woman from the side of the stage. She let the cape slide down one arm 
revealing a costume underneath. It looked rather like a magical girl's 
uniform, but it covered more of the body, and wasn't skin-tight. Of 
similar material to the cape, it clung to her body. 

The body it clung to was not, in any way, hard on the eyes. I caught 
whispers of what she looked like, fleeting glipses as the cloth brushed 
against her skin, the rest left entirely up to the imagination. And the 
colors - cherry red and pink, with a hint of purple - were not in any 
way "cute". A wand slapped lightly against her side as she walked, hips 
swaying seductively.

"I must congratulate you, Mr. Kurasaka. While my associates may not see 
any problem with your actions today, you have inconvenienced me 
greatly.

I frowned. "Associates?"

"The Magical Women."

I shook my head. "I don't remember you among them."

She laughed, an absolutely melodious sound, but strangely horrifying at 
the same time. "Oh, I was independent, then, but they felt that dear 
Kasumi was not fit to work with them anymore, so I'm there instead." 
She traced a finger along the side of her jaw. "We don't always agree 
on methods, however. While they may want to weed out the weaker 
elements, I'd prefer to train those elements to be more effective."

"That's why you had superheroes here. To train them."

"Astute of you," she said. "But that may not work, now."

"So sorry I ruined your game. I could take you out, now."

She shook her head ever so slightly, auburn hair swaying to heighten 
the movement. "Oh, I don't think so. Don't mistake your success with 
these..." she gestured around, "little girls. I'm sure I'm quite a 
different quarry." She turned, her skirt flared out and I -think- I 
caught sight of something. "Good evening, Mr. Kurasaka. We shall 
probably meet each other again." And then, she disappeared.

I blinked my eyes. I tried to remember details, but she seemed a 
phantasm.

"Weird," Itami said.

"Yeah," I turned around and started heading to an exit. "Nice seeing 
you, Devonshire."

***

Author's note:

Well, that's it; my first impro part. I'd like to thank my prereaders 
(Eric, Nick, NeoPuu, Matt, and Calculus) for their responses, 
especially on my first draft... If they hadn't been there to warn me, 
well... this part would have sucked.

While I was writing this, I noted that my part is the 3/4 mark for MGH. 
Now that it's done, we have 12 chapters left. In a way, due in part to 
the plot developments of the previous few chapters, I feel that this is 
a new beginning of sorts. A beginning of the end? Time will tell.

On the thought of previous chapters (yes, I'm rambling...) a few people 
noted to me that my position somewhat sucked (these tended to be the 
ones that hated Nick's and Eric's parts). I've got to say that I'm 
actually somewhat relieved. I got to do my own thing! And I didn't have 
to worry about messing something up. ^_^ It gave me a feeling of "pure 
impro" or some such undefined concept.

I had a lot of suggestions for titles given to me... and I have to 
confess I didn't use any of them. Eric and Nick gave me plenty of Rage 
Against the Machine song titles, many of which would have worked (I 
rather liked "The Fine Line Between Entertainment and War") but, me not 
knowing RAtM, I chose a song title of my favorite band, TWO-MIX. Sorry, 
guys. ^^;;;

Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading the part as much as I had writing it.

Damien Roc
Water Dragon Productions
Umi's Champion, Nuriko's Honor Guard
http://www.whyweb.com/damienroc/home.html
 "But it was the BEST three and a half minutes of the show!"
  -Tiffany Grant, on Plastic Little