Vivi looked upon the bubbly froth of her smoothie, the coarse purple mix of fruity flavors melting into a fine slush, blending into a delectable treat as she stirred it with her straw. She took a slow sip, swallowing the sweet substance with a deliberate gulp and then a slow breath. She stared at the swirling icy treat intently, distracting her from her weighty eyes.

“You okay, Vivi?” Carmen asked, her soft touch making her jolt in place. “Sorry.” She frowned.

“Oh, uh, no. You’re fine.” Vivi shook her head slowly, her voice bouncing around in tone and volume, peaking from a squeak, before falling to a somber hush. A soft pressure squeezed upon her arm.

“Hey now, you’re here with us,” Carmen smiled. “You don’t have to be all mopey when you have your favorite Jama smoothie.”

“Yeah, I know,” Vivi answered, but she couldn’t hide the sadness in her voice, her best friend beginning to frown.

“You know you can talk to us, right, Vivi?” Ichika gave her a gentle smile, only receiving a soft nod. “Vivi…”

“Now, now,” said Melody, “give her some space. I imagine she has a lot on her mind.”

“Yeah, but…” Carmen slumped forward.

“From what I understand, dysphoria can kinda just swamp trans people sometimes.” Annie frowned. “It sucks, but there’s not much we can do for her. We can only be here for her when she needs us.” She looked to Vivi with a tearful smile.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Vivi sighed. “It’s like you said, Annie. It’s been coming in waves, especially when I realize how far away I am from being who I want to be, right now.”

“But you’ll get there.” Ichika gave her a soft side hug, the yuki-onna’s chilly embrace wrapping around Vivi like a blanket of snow, sending a shiver down her back as her warm feelings and cold sensations twisted within her.

“Yeah. You’re right.” Vivi nodded. “Like, I think I shrank a little bit more last night.”

“See, you’re making progress,” Carmen grinned. “Oh, whoa, do you think you’ll end up shorter than me?” Her grin sharpened.

“Well, Magenta is pretty short,” Ichika cogitated.

“Kinda the shortest of us,” Annie hesitantly chuckled.

“Am I really that short?” Vivi blushed.

“Does that make you happy?” Melody giggled.

“A little.” Vivi gave a bashful smile. “I don’t really like being tall.”

“There’s that super sweet smile,” Carmen laughed.

“Carm,” Vivi pouted.

“I’m not sure which is cuter, her smile or pout,” Ichika giggled, much to Vivi’s irritation.

“Definitely her pout,” Carmen teased.

“Now, now,” Melody chuckled. “That’s enough teasing her.”

“Yeah, we should get back on track about what we’re doing next.” Annie nodded. “Is that alright with you, Vivi?”

“Yeah,” Vivi nodded. “Thanks, everyone.” The others smiled.

“Alright, to recap,” Annie began as the others huddled around the gazebo table. “A few days ago, we encountered Gunther again at the mall where he was attempting to capture Cleo, the one known as the manhunting witch.” The others nodded. “In the end, we managed to help protect Cleo, and stop her from killing Gunther in turn… although he managed to escape.” She frowned. “Does that sound right so far?”

“Mostly.” Carmen nodded. “Although I think it’s worth mentioning that his goons were left behind again.”

“He’s not exactly a great boss, is he.” Ichika shrugged.

“Not really,” Vivi agreed. “After that, we managed to calm down Cleo primarily thanks to that fairy girl’s appearance.”

“Speaking of, do we know anything about her?” Ichika asked. “Cleo seemed to act like her mother, but she also seems to be too young to be her mom, too.”

“I tried asking her when texting her earlier,” Annie answered, “but she’s been avoiding the question. She’s been saying she’s trying to keep her safe from some harmful people. I wonder if she’s related to Cleo hunting Gunther’s men.”

“I don’t think so.” Vivi shook her head. “When we connected, I felt a lot of her feelings.” She frowned. “Maybe part of it is to protect that girl, but I feel like she’s also been doing that other stuff to stop those guys from hurting others in general.”

“Hurting others?” Ichika repeated. “Now that you mention it, she seemed rather spiteful. It felt like she’d been hurt by other men before.”

“That was my impression too,” Annie continued, “I think she wants to protect others from the type of men who have hurt her so much in the past.”

“I can relate,” Melody sighed. “Those types of men… they don’t care about the people they hurt, and a lot of women tend to be the ones who get hurt by them the most. And Gunther… he’s definitely one of them,” she said bitterly. “He just saw me as some prize to keep.”

“Mel,” Ichika said, a quiet sigh chilling the air around her as the group recalled how they found Melody, trapped in a tank for Gunther’s amusement. It sent shivers down a couple of their spines, and lit flames of anger in the others.

“Yeah, I think we can all relate to why she did it.” Annie slumped. “However...” She began to rise to her feet. “I think that’s also why we should help her.” She smiled. “Er, not to hunt down these guys, but to welcome her, y’know?” She scratched her cheek. “I mean, she seems like she could use some friends she can trust.”

“Yeah, I agree.” Vivi nodded, the others adding in their own nods. “Let’s help her, and that fairy girl too!”

“Guess that means we’ll have to meet up with her, right boss?” Carmen grinned.

“Boss?” Annie blushed with a confused blink.

“Yeah. I mean, the reds always make the best bosses, right?” Carmen chuckled.

“Is this from another one of the anime you follow?” Melody asked.

“No, it’s something else,” Vivi chuckled. “Sentai, I think, like those Pow Rangers.”

“Oh, that?” Ichika tilted her head. “My cousin is obsessed with that stuff. I never got the appeal personally.”

“Yeah, I prefer anime, though.” Vivi nodded. “I don’t know, it just feels more fun.”

“You’ve never really been into live action stuff, so that’s not surprising,” Carmen commented.

“Anyway.” Annie cleared her throat. “I’ll get in contact with her and figure out when to meet. Which brings us to our next issue.”

“Next issue?” Carmen cocked her eyebrow in curiosity.

“I think she means about the police.” Vivi gave a sullen sigh.

“Yeah, unfortunately.” Annie’s expression fell. “I don’t know why, but they seem to have their eyes on us now.”

“What the heck is with that crap anyway?” Carmen blurted. “They’ve been making it sound like it’s our fault there was all sorts of damage at the mall. They’re even blaming us for that group trying to steal those medical documents too, right? What the heck!?”

“The police around here have never had the best reputation,” Ichika noted.

“While that may be true,” Melody shook her head, “their behavior on this is particularly suspicious. We should probably ask Cleo about it too.”

“What do you mean?” Annie asked.

“Well, she got on their bad side too, right?” Melody observed. “And this is after they ignored Gunther’s presence. I mean, they didn’t even mention him or his goons after the stuff at the mall. Maybe they have some sort of connection. And Cleo would be the one to know the most about it.”

“That’s true,” Ichika said. “With all those rumors about her hunting dangerous men, she must’ve had some run-ins with the police. So she’d be the best one to ask about all of this. If I remember correctly, some of those rumors even mentioned that she was tracking down a bunch of corrupt cops.”

“Wait, couldn’t they have their eyes on us because of Cleo?” Carmen asked, the others giving her a perplexed look. “Listen,” she grumbled, hiding a slight embarrassed blush. “I don’t have much faith in them either, but isn’t it possible that they noticed us because we helped Cleo?”

“I suppose,” Annie considered.

“If that’s the case, they still jumped the gun by overtly saying we’re suspects of a wholly separate incident,” Melody countered.

“Yeah, I guess that’s true.” Carmen crossed her arms.

“At any rate, regardless of why...” Annie scratched her head. “We still need to figure out where it would be safe to meet Cleo. We were planning to do a patrol tonight, right? Let’s take some time to check for areas that would seem safe to meet her at, agreed?” The others nodded. “Good.”

“Alright, then,” Melody smiled. “We’ve been going for a bit, why don’t we all take a break.” She looked up to Annie with a wide smile.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll take you for a stroll,” Annie chuckled. “We’ll meet up back here in thirty, sound good?”

“Sounds good to me.” Ichika nodded as she rose to stretch her legs and Annie grabbed the handles of Melody’s wheelchair and began pushing it down the sidewalk.

Vivi and Carmen followed suit and stretched when Vivi looked to see Carmen’s agitated face. “Carm, you okay?”

“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine,” she said, looking off at the nearby wall of a housing complex.

“Carmen.” Vivi frowned, and then pouted. Carmen looked to the ground. “Carm!”

“What!?” Carmen flinched.

“You and the others said you were there for me,” she stared into Carmen’s eyes, “but that’s not a one-way thing.” She continued to pout. “I’m here for you too.”

“Yeah, but I don’t need…”

“Carmen.” She glared.

“What?”

“Do you really think I haven’t notice?” She frowned.

“Notice what?”

“When the police got brought up, you got on edge,” she explained. “I know you’re not just suddenly all comfortable with this.” Carmen began to loosen into a slump again. “Please talk to me.”

“Fine,” she sighed. “I just… I don’t know. I know the police aren’t necessarily good people or anything, but… y’know…”

“That’s right, you really thought they were cool back when we were younger, right?” Vivi recalled. “But your dad’s never been a big fan of them.”

“Yeah, dad’s had a lot of bad run ins with the police,” Carmen sighed. “I didn’t really get it when we were kids. I just saw them as the good guys that valiantly protected people and stopped the bad guys. I mean, that’s how they acted like in a bunch of shows back then. And then there’s my cousins.”

“Oh yeah, Devon, right? He wanted to be a police officer, right?”

“Wanted to, yeah. Past tense though. He became one last year.” Carmen lightly chuckled then frowned. “Dad wasn’t too happy with my aunt over that.”

“I remember you really looked up to him. You were always excited to learn all the fitness stuff he learned, like diets and training routines, right?”

“You remember that pretty well for someone who wasn’t interested,” Carmen teased.

“Well...” Vivi fidgeted. “I don’t know, back then I just… I don’t think I really understood, but I think the idea of being more muscular was uncomfortable for me.”

“Really?”

“It… just felt wrong to me,” Vivi sighed. “I think I understand better now. Thinking of myself as more muscular and everything…” She shook her head. “I don’t want that. I don’t want to be seen like that, like a boy.”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” Carmen chuckled. “Besides, you were always like the squishy magey type anyway.”

“I could get into that.” Vivi grinned. She then blinked in realization, noticing that they had gotten off topic. “Er, sorry, you were saying about your dad?”

“Right.” Carmen nodded. “Dad’s always had issues with the police. Mom says he used to go to a lot of protests before he started working at the hospital. He doesn’t really talk about it much though. He just gives cryptic warnings.” She continued to sigh. “I mean, he got super upset when he found out about Irina’s dad when he got promoted.”

“Irina…” Vivi repeated the name. She had admittedly not thought about her in a while. With everything happening she hadn’t had time to think about, much less talk to her friends from school, which made her a little sad. Irina was a cool and collected girl who was always supportive of her and Carmen, especially when she got bullied by her brother, Todd. She got along well with Carmen, acting as a solid ground to Carmen’s more energetic disposition especially when it came to sports.

Back before everything happened it was Vivi herself, Carmen, Irina, and her secret crush, Erika. The four of them were always close, especially with how Irina and Erika both shared Vivi’s own enthusiasm for botany. Upon further thought, it was pretty obvious in hindsight why she felt so much more comfortable with other girls and had few friends that were boys. But before she could dwell on the subject much further, she shook her head and turned looked back to Carmen. “How’s she doing anyway?”

“She’s doing okay.” Carmen smiled softly. “She misses you and Erika a lot. Although, apparently something’s been going on with her dad.”

“Think it’s related to what’s going on with us?”

“I don’t know,” Carmen frowned. “I hope not. I… I don’t want to face him,” she said, her voice fading into a whisper.

“Carm?”

“It’s nothing,” Carmen grinned, although Vivi didn’t really believe her. “Oh, look,” she looked back to the gazebo and pointed to a waving Ichika. “Looks like it’s time to continue the meeting.”

“Carmen…” Vivi said, grasping at her hand as Carmen tried to pass her. “We’re here for you. We’ll help you through it.”

“Thanks, Vivi.” Carmen smiled as she wiped away some lingering dampness. “Same back at you too. I know you’re going through a lot right now, but I’m here for you too.”

“Yeah.” Vivi giggled, Carmen looking at her with wide eyes. “W-what?”

“Just, gosh.” Carmen scratched her cheek. “You’re really getting good at being girly. I mean, that giggle was just super cute.” She grinned, Vivi bringing her hands to her face in a vain attempt to mask her embarrassed glee. “How did I never notice how much of a girl you are.”

“You’re telling me.” Vivi frowned. “I wish I realized it sooner. I mean, I feel like I keep noticing more signs that should’ve tipped me off. Although…” She grabbed at her chest. “Understanding myself now, and being like this… it’s getting a lot harder. Like, I sit at home, just wanting to be in girl mode, but then I have to hear my family refer to me as a boy… it’s so hard.”

Carmen pulled her into a hug. “I’m sorry Vivi. I hope you won’t have to deal with it for too long though.”

“Me too,” Vivi said, enjoying the warm embrace.

“Well, it’s about time we got changed.”

“Huh, right now?”

“I mean, why not?” Carmen asked. “We’re going to be going out on patrols anyway tonight, so why not get changed a little early, then you can enjoy some girl time.”

“I… That sounds nice, but...”

“Come on,” Carmen chuckled. “Here, I’ll go first.”

Carmen pulled out her locket and flicked the latch, an audible crack tearing through the air as electricity arced around her. Sparks coursed up and down her body, imbuing it with a golden energy. The energy tightened around her until it formed a shiny golden tracksuit with white bars lining her abdomen. The sparks then snapped onto her wrists and ankles, solid metallic greaves and gauntlets forming upon them. The sparks then gathered upon her chest, forming an equally yellow chassis upon her chest. The remaining volts arced to her ears, forming a pair of white headphones, a pair of white spikes shooting out of them to make a v-shape towards the back of her head. Finally, the electricity made a circuit along the crown of her head forming a sparkling mechanical helmet, crowned with a sparkling tiara, a yellow visor dropping down to cover her eyes.

Vivi looked upon her friend with awe as Prism Yellow proudly stood before her. “See. No problem.”

“Y-yeah.” Vivi nodded. “Alright, you win. It’s my turn.” Carmen smiled as Vivi pulled out her own locket. “Time for Magenta!”

* * *

The street was quiet, a young woman walking along with a giddy smile plastered on her face. It was difficult to tell what stood out about her most. The cutesy frilly dress was certainly far fancier than anyone usually wore in the industrial area she found herself in. Maybe it was her bright pink leggings that popped out from the white skirt. Or perhaps it was the pink bows that elegantly trailed behind her. But it was probably her brightly colored pink hair that made the young magical girl stand out most. Not that she particularly minded, she was too busy enjoying her time in girl mode to be brought down. Nothing could distract her from that…

A buzz came from her skirt pocket. Well, almost nothing could distract her. An ever intrusive message from her friends was one of the few things that could though. She pulled out her phone.

“Keep an eye out for possible meeting places,” Vivi read it aloud. She grumbled to herself. They needed to find a place they could safely meet with Cleo, but… “That’s easier said than done,” She looked around the strip mall to her side. They could try meeting behind it… but that seemed impractical.

There were really only four types of places in the Valley. Densely packed mazes of residential housing, malls of all flavors, public services like schools and transit centers, and finally the odd park with little to no privacy. It wasn’t like some of the cities that she saw on TV or that the others would mention. There weren’t any alleys or secretive nooks. Everything was either private or very obvious. She was sure there were places to meet, especially with how plenty of things had been abandoned since the Magical Mist, but she had no idea where to start with that.

“STOP!” someone screamed. Vivi looked back to the parking lot. At the far end of the strip mall was a pair of men. A tall green man with pointed ears fell backwards as another shorter man stood before him, a rock floating above his hand.

“Shut up!” the man with the rock spat back. “If you want it back, then take it, ya wimp!” The man held the orkish man’s wallet in front of him. “Oh, wait, ya can’t. Cause you’re a coward.”

“Please. I beg you. I...”

The mage began laughing as he turned his back to the distraught ork. Then, suddenly, he found himself hurtling to the ground. “What the hell!?” He turned to face his victim, only to see a pink haired girl approaching. “Shit! You’re one of them!”

“Let go of the wallet!” Vivi commanded.

“Oh, like hell I’m going out to some punk girl!” The thief sneered. He tightened his fists, two chunks of stone lifting from the ground. He made a pair of punching motions, sending the rocks flying.

In an instant, Vivi summoned her wand to her grasp, and with a simple wave two bolts of pink energy collided with the rocks, shattering them into rubble.

“W-what!?” The thief gawked. Before he could do anything else, a mass of vines erupted from the sidewalk, ensnaring him, making him drop the wallet in the process. “What the hell!?”

Vivi picked up the wallet and turned to the ork man. “Here you go.” She offered it to him.

“Y-you’re…” Vivi looked at him confusedly. “You’re one of the ones the police said was...” He slowly reached for his wallet. Vivi looked at him sadly. Why was he so afraid? She just helped him.

The man snatched his wallet and began running. “Please don’t hurt me!” He exclaimed.

“What just…?” Vivi looked on in pain.

The police.

He was afraid of her because of what the police said.