"I refuse".

""You can't"" Both Aqua and Sauriel said at the same time, I only sigh in defeat at the obvious answer I knew they would give, I turn my head towards Mary and Akari but they just flash a wry smile at me.

[Well at least I tried].

"Well, how do I...  you know... do that? forming a team isn't easy... I think" I asked in hopes that maybe they will give me an actually helpful answer, but I see that both of them looked at each other and shrugged it off.

"Well you don't have to worry about it too much, you'll just need to come up with how many people you want and a code name for each member, oh! and a name for the group" Sauriel said, I can sense Mary and Akari's with a wide grin plastered all over their faces.

[I can't help but think about how much of a hassle this will be, but I least have 2 members eager to go... for some reason].

"Well you need to think about some important things in the meantime" Sauriel said.

"""Like what?""" Mary me and Akari said at the same time, I chuckle at the fact that they already had incorporated themselves into this unnamed group, without my opinion or approval but will let it slide for now.

"Unlike Aquamarine's group, the third generation doesn't really have anything to be identified between themselves, so you will have to come up with a way to identify members within your group" Sauriel's tail starts pointing at me, the effect dwindled by the bell attached to it.

[Well, it's true that the generation has made Magical girls more 'diverse' but that shouldn't be a problem, I mean we have Mary, who is a shrine maiden, Akari is a magician and I am an RPG... ok yeah I see his point we really are a bunch of weird cosplayers, but we need something recognizable between us but that isn't too intrusive since I appreciate the diversity, but what even classifies as that? earrings? maybe a pendant... rings are what peeks my interests, like that dude who had one on each finger, yeah he was cool, wait NO... don't derail yourself, I need to think about that later].

"I will think about it, but give some time" Everyone nods at my statement ignoring all the problems they just piled up on me, We begin preparing to go to our respective houses before I get pulled aside by Aqua.

"Umm, what?" I asked while being uncomfortable by Aqua looking deep into my eyes, I in turn tried not to look to directly into her amber eyes.

"Don't be too pressured into it" Aqua said, I raise my eyebrow in confusion.

"O-ok? I guess" I say nervously.

"I will accompany you to your house".

"Why?" My question is directed at her and however decided my fate at the same time.

"My presence will discourage anyone from attacking you while you are tired"

[Well I won't deny that I'm tired, but honestly, that's like my state of being, but I did get thrown into a wall more than usual so that explains me being in a 'weak state', I guess I will comply].

I nod and Aqua hold my hand while scoring me to my house, on the way there I notice nothing suspicious so I just tossed up the 'maybe they will ambush me' to Aqua's paranoia, I wondered about maybe some 'Magical girl PTSD' can be involved, since the state of Hui and Magda after their fight did leave me quite shocked, they were extremely beaten up and I can't help but feel empathy after I realized that they were my age, I eventually reach my house and proceed to sleep.

 

"Help meeeee" I say in a pleading tone, my voice relaying pain from within my body.

"I think you can manage it" Sauriel says as he sits beside my collapsed body.

"No I can't, tell Aqua that she needs another successor, this is my last struggle before my life slips away".

"That would be a hassle".

It is currently 10:30 AM, I barely got any sleep after having a picnic at night,  I'm trying to get up from the bed but I can feel its warm and cozy feel pulling my soul into the sleep state that I was 20 minutes ago, my body isn't bearing any better as the beatdown I received by that angel has manifested in the form of muscle pain, I'm struggling to actually remain awake since sleeping the entire would alert my Mom so I just try to walk it off, but I can't even get up to walk.

[Damm, Someone must have replaced my bed with a trap to maintain me here, why the hell is this so comfy? stupid bed becoming magically expensive after I get a beatdown, maybe I should get beat up when I want the nicest sleep of my life... No, only a madman would actually think that's how it works].

A shiver goes through Sauriel's spine as he remembers one of his own students with a similar mindset.

"I give up" I let my body completely sink into the bed face first, the smell of freshly washed bed sheets floods my nose as I transcend the mortal plane.

"One of the best rookie Magical girls, defeated by a simple bed" Sauriel said while looking at me, I almost feel like he is disappointed by this, I don't care anymore so I just ignored him.

"Well, I tried my best, Marchosias should have copied this bed instead of Mary's barriers".

"It would be infused with her fire element".

"A warmer bed isn't a problem, I would consider it a feature ".

"...".

Sauriel silently judges the almost unconscious body of mine that is currently sliding into dreamland.

"Anyway, Sauriel what did I have to go do today?" I have decided that having Sauriel actually help me was better since I didn't want to walk into another trap like those weird tranquilizers, apparently, they had some magic in them so that weird dream I had is probably related to that.

To have Sauriel help me in combat means that he has to remain in my hairpin and see the battle through my eyes, but it also means that he has access to my memories, and more importantly, I would hear him in my head.

[I mean is not a bad idea though, it just gives me weird feelings, like although I can scream, my inner voice maintains the same volume, I just perceive it as a scream, the same thing happens when I whisper, so now I try to SCREAM or whisper in my head but they have the same volume, which does not help on anything, I'm just really looking for ways to waste time].

"You have an important meeting with 'Hui', the girl that helped you".

[Oh yeah I was talking to Sauriel]

"I see, I look forwards to it, what about you Sauriel?".

"She is still a criminal Amy, so I need to report our encounter even if you don't want to".

"Can you show some compassion?" I say while looking at him, he just looks at me with indifference.

"Pretty please~?" I put my best imitations of puppy eyes, they do not compare to Mary's but they come close.

"I guess that your meeting would be so boring that I would inevitably fall asleep and conveniently not hear anything and forget to report the incident".

"I see, that would be rather unfortunate, let's get going!!".

Sauriels jumps into my hairpin as I summon all the willpower and a bit of aether to make my legs move, it works good enough to get out and grab a change of clothes, take a bath and brush my teeth before seeing my mom, who is cooking 'breakfast', It is weird but my mom has a weird sleeping schedule, I tried to look into it but apparently she just reads on her phone and gets so into it that she forgets to sleep, causing us to eat too irregularly.

[That's a weird habit, who gets so into a book to actually have struggle sleeping?].

["You have the same habit, you literally almost missed a schooldays because of it"].

Sauriel says in my head.

[I see, it must be hereditary].

I nod in agreement with myself, Sauriel just metaphorically facepalm as he is just a construct in my mind right now, I get my breakfast, its fried eggs with a toast and rice, I get 4 servings of rice and my moms cooks an extra fried egg since I'm dying of hunger, I asked about my eating habits to Sauriel since they are becoming too monstrous, I had previous knowledge that I eat a lot but it has been getting ridiculous recently, Sauriel says that aether puts a lot of strain in the body, so Magic-users tend to eat a lot to regains nutrients.

[I see, so because of my earlier actions I have become hungrier than usual].

["Yes that's is correct"].

[Do you think I can eat enough to get rid of these muscles on my tummy?].

["Hmm... I think you will get more nutrients and therefore get even more fit"].

[Starving it is then!!!].

I go on my normal routine, just lay around the house and do lazy things as an excuse for training, I have requested Sauriel to only talk to me in my head so I get accustomed to him suddenly speaking in my head, I'm also having 'special training sessions' by having Sauriel ask questions or give his opinion about the absolute trash of movies and anime that Mary robbed... I mean scavaged from Comicket and gleefully handed to me.

["I can't believe you actually force David to do that"].

[Well I wasn't going to spend my money and not at least break even!!!]

Sauriel sighs in my mind, I get slowly accustomed to him in a rapid manner as he is really dumb and asks about annoying things all the time like the name characters that appear although he has seen them before and the famous 'why?' questions for everything that happens on screen, the whole thing devolves into me laughing about the poor acting and Sauriel pointing out every single plot hole in the movies.

[Maybe I should do this more often, I'm sure Mary wouldn't mind if I picked up more dumbass DvD's from her collection].

["I also 'enjoyed' the movies"].

[I can hear your air quotes, or more like think them? visualize them? anyway I have to visit Hui now].

I get ready to actually visit Hui, she is still in the hospital so I have to travel a long distance, around 30 minutes on foot, I get the most comfortable shoes I have and head there, I decide to actually walk to get more 'Sauriel in my head' training since I will be running and talking to him while in battle, I decided to try and get some conversation going with Sauriel.

[Hey Sauriel, what happened with Marcosias? I know that apparently you 'dealt' with her but what does that mean exactly?].

My movements don't change at all so I really look like a normal girl, with the exception I have a toned body, and a talking cat inside my hairpin that can talk through my head, so yeah, a normal girl walking through the street.

["I called the high angels, they showed up and took Marchosias back into our homeland Gaia for interrogation and imprisonment"].

[You are not like sad or anything? You seemed to want to reason with her so that she stopped doing whatever she was doing].

["it is only natural for me to do so as a fellow angel and as a small friend, Marchosias only wanted the best for humanity, even after being enslaved by Solomon and his idiotic book"].

I get started by the mention of Solomon, I get suspicious but decide to shelve that for later and focus on the other thing.

[What book?].

["The Lemegeton"].

[U huh?].

I try to probe more information out of him since it's not exactly difficult, but the whole thing is getting suspicious, the mention of Cain in the contract has already made me suspicious, but now Hui's claims and this Lemegeton has made me too suspicious to actually shelve it for later, so I pull out my phone and start seeking more information.

[Is that everything that happened to Marchiosas? did she say anything else? like curse me or humanity]

["Well, I was aware she did some outrageous things, but nothing too evil, but I was proven wrong by the sudden appearances of really extreme figures like Gabriel and Uriel, they generally don't appear unless something extreme happens, so thye should be investigating those matters"]

I ponder for a moment before googling about the names of these angels, and surely enough, some information appears for them.

[You may think I'm dumb, but You really talk about this stuff nonchalantly].

["Why do you say that?"].

[King Solomon, Gabriel, Uriel, Gaia...].

For each thing I say I lift up one of my fingers in the air keeping count.

[Cain mentioned in the contract, these are extremely important figures even on earth, so what is exactly is true and what isn't?].

Sauriel paused for a moment, if he had a physical body he would be sweating bullets right now.

["Most tales were exaggerated beyond belief and the game of broken telephone that happened over thousands of years made it almost a completely different history written in many books, some people decided to combine these books and seek their wisdom, but it essentially became a different thing, is an anthology that slowly got thinner and thinner over time"].

I shuddered in disbelief, although I wanted to evade the question, it was clear that something more was going on in the world that it lets on, Hui's assistance on Aether being explainable made me a bit less naive, that's the reason I asked, but this is just unreasonable.

[Is the tower of Babel real?].

I ask this question as it is one of my favorite stories although it's not the most known, and since it relates it might have an interesting answer and subsequent questions about the actual nature of history.

["It existed"].

Shivers are sent down my spine, I gulp loudly but decide to continue even if I regret it later.

[Cain?].

["Don't think you'll ever meet him, but if you do try to talk to him, after all, being cursed with immortality and not being able to remain in a place without it being completely dried out of life is quite the burden on him"].

My eyes widen, I knew God was ruthless but that was ridiculous.

[Anything else? just how much of this should I take into account].

["If you're interested in how much you actually don't know, let me tell you, Judas actually wrote a gospel but no one bothered to read it after his guts were painted all over Akeldama"].

I almost trip over for the realization, I quickly recover from the blast of information he dropped on me, I, of course, know about angels and their mythology since Magical girls had them and they were prominent, so I researched them and eventually came to know quite a few things, but this is straight-up ridiculous, I guessed they being called 'angels' was some kind of exaggeration, but I guessed wrong, moreover, a gospel that got the REDACTED treatment? I was completely taken aback.

[I'm gonna have a mental breakdown].

I begin paying attention to Sauriel answer as it breaks my view on reality as I know it.

["Yeah don't think too much about it, what you think of the world becomes weird if you actually take the time to analyze everything, the Sahara desert? Cain did it by spending too much time in it, The bubonic plague? someone discovered a piece of the Arc of the covenant and used it on a country to wipe it off the map the..."].

*crash.

I have crashed head-on into a stop sign, I feel my head hurt a lot as I stumble and fall on my butt in the middle of the street as everyone stares into me, I feel their pity towards me as I get up quickly and try to move on, but my muscles haven't recovered yet so it takes a minute for me to start moving again.

[Oww, I lost my concentration because of the world-shattering truth, I guess I'll ask more later but one more thing Sauriel]

["What is it?"].

[Can I ask why does it look like only bad things happen when angels are involved?].

["It is easier to remember a bad thing because they are less common"].

[You can read my mind, you know that's not what I meant].

["Okay, Generally speaking, dimensions don't interact too often, mine only did a few times but humans interpreted these random events as being correlated somehow, which is not that true, but recently the interference is quite big"].

[Any reason why?].

["The amount of aether in the atmosphere is extremely dense here, it so pressing that only high angels can actually take physical form here, Marchosias somehow managed to not be affected by connecting her aether to the physical world and revealing her 3-star form, although that probably wasn't even her doing and more with being enslaved by the Lemegedon"].

[So that's why she looked kind of human unlike you who si a cat].

["Correct"].

[But that doesn't answer my question].

["What Hui told you about devils is only half true, you actually need something else apart from high quantities of aether, which is provided by our presence, since concentrated aether facilitates the opening of microscopic fractures between dimensions it became a feedback loop, the aether made a dimensional fracture causing a devil to appear, the devil caused enough emotion to spill in the air to generate aether, rinse and repeat"].

[...].

["..."].

[Okay but how do we Magical girls fit in all of these?].

["As mentioned, the mere presence of angels can cause a devil to appear, so we can't deal with these not only because we would awaken more, we are also crushed under the dense aether atmosphere so our powers are sealed, so we recruited magical girls to deal with them"].

[Makes sense, but you are here with me so how do you explain that?].

["The contract links our image to the Magical girls but our presence remains in Gaia, this way magical girls do not waken devils and grant them the status of catalyst, or Magic-users"].

[So you're a hologram? your image is linked to me?]

["It's more like we are taking residence in your body and flip the magic switch"].

[Ah, how professional, anyway I asked like 5 more questions than I intended, so I'll stop for now]

I nod before I reach my destination after the absolute disaster of information just thrown at me, the general emergencies hospital is in front of me so I take a foot inside.

"Now this will be interesting".