"Take a seat, Eri." Mother instructed. Her parents had apologized to the others and said they didn't want to be around when the officials arrived. Eri had wished Saki a quick happy birthday and then walked in a daze back to the car. She had thought herself a reasonably open-minded person, who enjoyed stories about aliens, time travel and alternate realities. She had just never thought they would all explode in her face at once. Those stories always happened to someone else.

　　"We didn't want to have this conversation with you yet." Mother sighed, sitting across from Eri and pouring both of them a cup of hot tea. "But there's no sense hiding it anymore."

　　Eri waited patiently as Mother took a long sip of tea to compose herself. "It's like this. We're the leaders of the most powerful organization on Earth. Our goal is simple: World Domination. You were meant to be our heir, the inheritor of a new and better world. That's why we raised you with such high standards and expectations. We need you to be perfect. We couldn't accept anything less. And so far, you've been doing very well. We don't really need the wyrds to tell us this, but you've followed in our footsteps perfectly."

　　"Wait." Eri held up one hand palm out while rubbing her forehead with the other. "When do we get to the explosions?"

　　"In time, child." Mother laughed, taking another sip of tea. "Ok, I'll start over. Three years ago, Father and I were approached by an alien civilization from a higher dimension. They had mastered two powers we humans lacked, dimensional travel and future sight. At the time, their situation was very grim. As a result of their overtechnology, they had grown to an unsustainable limit and had only a few years, in our time, left to live. So, paradoxically, between the two of us, humans were the more advanced species . We still had a bright future, whereas theirs was already doomed. These aliens call themselves wyrds, and in this world, they can only manifest as small round gems."

　　Mother paused a moment and then undid the clasp on the back of a fine golden necklace. At its heart, hanging on a teardrop pendant, was a glowing yellow gem. "Eri, meet Daffodil. This is my wyrd. My companion for life. She's very special to me."

　　"Hello Daffodil." Eri bowed politely.

　　"Hello Eri." Daffodil blinked back in a polite feminine voice.

　　"Wyrds wanted to help us, since they could no longer help themselves. They were much more advanced than humans, but ironically had to rely on us to keep carrying the torch of life forward. The people they rely on are called Choice Givers. They're people like your Father. People like me. Within our way of life, our system of values, our thoughts and feelings and actions and decisions, in sum, our choices, is a secret formula that will liberate the full potential of life. Wyrds used to have people like this that they admired and obeyed, but now there are only humans with that kind of potential. Because they're a fair-minded species, when they ran out of their own Choice Givers, they came down to serve us instead. Wyrds have come down to Earth to give us three things -- their wisdom, their future sight, and their magic power. Because all of these tools can be abused in the hands of the wrong people, they've restricted these gifts to Choice Givers alone. It is up to us to spread the lessons the wyrds have to teach to the rest of mankind, using the power they've bestowed upon us, under the guidance of their 100% correct predictions." Mother paused to put her necklace back on and tuck her pendant back under her shirt.

　　"The problem is not everyone is suited to become a Choice Giver. Choice Givers are the moral aristocracy of this world. We are a natural elite that has surpassed ordinary human limits. It was the same for wyrds. Only a handful of wyrds at any given time were Choice Givers, most just didn't have the intellectual or emotional traits necessary to do the right thing, even when they knew what it was. But humanity must do the right thing, or it's doomed to stagnation or extinction. If humanity does not follow us, it will plunge off a cliff. This isn't theory, it's an established fact. Wyrds can see the future, and we are the only future for mankind. Wyrds are never wrong. Scrying is like sight to them. It can't see forever in all directions to the tiniest possible detail, but it can be relied on as firmly as when we rely on our eyes to decide where to take our next step on a walk or where to stretch our arm to pick something up. It's nonsense to disagree with a wyrd's eyesight. It's the same as saying the sky isn't blue to someone staring right up at it." Mother explained.

　　Eri nodded, feeling like she had heard something like this before. Where?

　　"Wyrds had an answer for that within their society. Those who couldn't become Choice Givers, followed or emulated those who could. Great respect was given to Choice Givers. Their holiness, their superiority, was self evident to any wyrd because they can all scry and scrying was never wrong. It was easy to convince the other wyrds to do as their Choice Givers said. And in this way, their entire race was able to live at the highest level of refinement. Everyone was as good as their very best. They created a wonderful civilization because it was modeled after their most wonderful people. But humans don't have this sixth sense, this third eye. They can't see clearly and visibly who their moral aristocracy is. They are lost and take after false prophets or their own emotional whims. Whereas most wyrds were followers and emulators, most humans are Dead Enders. They are the very bottom of the moral castes. A Dead Ender to a wyrd is like a leper or a felon to us, diseased, scary, and disgusting. But for humans, it's everyone you meet. They just don't know any better." Mother continued.

　　"So now we're back to where we began. When wyrds came down to us three years ago, giving us congratulations, because we had finally ascended to their highest and noblest caste, and finally merited their attention and support, we realized what a dark and benighted world, for the first time, we were really living in. A few weeks later, a recruiter came to our door, with his own wyrd in tow. He explained that he belonged to the Moral Aristocracy, the most powerful collection of Choice Givers in the world, and that they all worked together for safety and support. We're almost to the explosions." Mother smiled.

　　"The Moral Aristocracy has an evil nemesis. We call them the Corrupters. Wyrds can scry into the hearts of man in either direction. Some wyrds, dissatisfied with the loss of their world, came down with completely inverted values. The most beautiful human souls, for them, were the most ambitious and destructive Dead Enders on Earth. They wanted to empower these Dead Enders instead, and lead them to victory over the light. When the war just began, when wyrds had first arrived on Earth, we were all fighting on our own whenever the two forces met. All sorts of silly adventures occurred, but Choice Givers were outnumbered and the Corrupters were winning. The Moral Aristocracy realized things couldn't go on like this, and flew all across the world to fight as a team that could no longer be picked off one by one. Soon the Corrupters started fighting as teams too, and it was really looking grim for a moment. But seven years ago, the Corrupters suddenly went silent. Their numbers evaporated, and we Choice Givers were suddenly on the attack. We started scrying out particularly bad Dead Enders and checking to see if they were indeed the Corrupted. Most of the time they weren't. They were just evil people like you'd see anywhere. Corrupters are extremely good at hiding in this world, because it's so evil they could practically choose anyone to work with. But we have had successes. We've become so assiduous in hunting down Corruptors that they've evacuated all of Asia. We're trying to secure Europe next, but it all relies on numbers. When we joined the organization, when they recruited us three years ago, we were assigned to patrol Japan. The Corrupters could always come back, so we wanted to live in the safest place we could find." Mother paused and took a sip of tea.

　　"Inazumu is the safest place on Earth for two reasons. One, crime is non-existent. The people here are remarkably conscientious. Two, there were already six Choice Givers living here together, keeping the city safe from any Corrupter incursions. We knew they would never dare to attack you here. Then, of course, they did." Mother laughed wryly.

　　"So the others who were fighting? They're part of the Moral Aristocracy too?" Eri asked.

　　"No. They're just a little group of friends that apparently wants to stay out of the fight and live out normal lives. A little disappointing, really." Mother said.

　　"Oh." Eri said, deflated. If Saki had been part of the Moral Aristocracy too, everything would've been perfect.

　　"For now, we have to deal with the Corrupters. They have the power to destroy the world in an eye blink, whereas normal Dead Enders would take centuries or millennia to do it. The Moral Aristocracy is tasked with the hunting and killing of all remaining Corrupters as their prime directive. If the Corrupters gather in one place, we call for reinforcements, and the Moral Aristocracy gathers in one place. If they spread out, we spread out and chase them. Since the majority of the wyrds in the etheric plane are on our side, we have a good chance of winning this war. Even so, we've lost a lot of good people protecting the Earth. Some of them were my friends." Mother admitted a little sadly.

　　"We've been trying to produce more Choice Givers to refill our ranks. The parents among us all have our hopes. You're one of them, Eri. But it hasn't gone as well as planned. Choice Givers can't be mass manufactured according to a blueprint. We raise you with our own standards, the ones wyrds tell us are the right standards, and as a result all we've ever gotten is obedient, well-behaved children. When the wyrds scry you, Eri, they see a follower. A very beautiful, very dutiful, very loyal follower of her parents. It's the same for the rest of us. Choice Givers can't be taught. They emerge spontaneously with an inspiration from God. Parents just aren't cut out for it. But then again, you're only eleven years old. Maybe you'll join us later, when you've thought things through more thoroughly. After all, we only became Choice Givers three years ago, and we're middle aged. I just don't know how to help you any further from here. All the help we give you just makes you an even more loyal follower. I'm sorry, Eri." Mother lowered her head.

　　"No, don't," Eri waved her hands, aghast. "You haven't done anything wrong, Mother. You're perfect. Didn't you say even the wyrds were mainly followers? I don't mind following you. I love you!"

　　"Thank you. But remember you need to obey your Father too." Mother winked.

　　"I know." Eri smiled back. "My parents are one flesh. That's what marriage means. Following you is following him, and vice versa."

　　"That's right." Mother nodded. "You really are such a good girl."

　　Eri felt warm and fuzzy from all the praise.

　　"But the problem remains. Even if we do defeat the Corrupters, they'll win in the end. That's because humanity is quite competent enough to destroy itself. We were well on our way before they got here, and once they're gone, we'll just continue apace. We know how the world is supposed to be organized, now. We're supposed to be a three-caste system, with Choice Givers on top, followers and emulators underneath, and Dead Ender untouchables at the bottom. We're supposed to use praise and shame to make people want to be followers and emulators instead of Dead Enders. We're supposed to be as strong as our strongest link, we're supposed to be as good as our saints. But we can't scry. So everything has gone wrong. God gave us five senses when we really needed six. The moral sense. Without the moral sense, we're still blind. Blind, and heading off a cliff. Without the moral sense, how do we make everyone follow the natural aristocracy, mankind's Choice Givers? How does the Moral Aristocracy conquer the world? If we don't, mankind has no future. And that's what the Moral Aristocracy has truly been organized for. That's the real challenge we're trying to overcome. That's why we need to work together and pool our powers and ideas the most." Mother explained.

　　That's where she'd heard this question before. "How do you make people want to be good?" Eri repeated aloud.

　　"Precisely. And we all came to the same conclusion." Mother said.

　　"Fear." Eri realized.

　　"My, my." Mother's eyes widened in surprise. "Correct again. Maybe you will join us soon."

* * *

　　"It hurts." Yume said in a fully recovered and cheerful voice, poking her bandaged chest. "Shadow, it hurts."

　　"Of course it hurts if you keep pressing on it." Shadow chided.

　　"But look." Yume poked over her heart and gasped in pain. "It actually hurts. I can feel it, Shadow. I can feel it when I'm hurt. Every piece of my body, all the way down to my feet. Can you imagine that? Even feeling your feet?"

　　Shadow glowed gray, stealing the color from the room. "A bit better than lying in bed, isn't it?"

　　"Shadow, it's wonderful." Yume said, poking her chest again because she just couldn't stop herself. "I felt the wind on my skin as we flew. I felt the sun heating me up. I felt your warmth nestled against my neck while we cast. I could feel the magic. It was so powerful. It makes your whole body tingle and shake. It was so powerful."

　　"You already said that." Shadow glowed pleasantly.

　　"Did I?" Yume poked her chest again and bit her lip from the intoxicating pain. "Shadow, are you angry with me?"

　　"I'm not angry with you. We tried our best." Shadow said.

　　"I lined up the crosshairs right onto his forehead like you said. I even held my breath like you said. But I still missed." Yume fretted.

　　"It wasn't your fault. The shot should have hit. Maybe it was just some sort of combat instinct, but he flinched right before we fired." Shadow explained.

　　"So I didn't mess up?" Yume asked hopefully.

　　"No. It wasn't your fault. We'll get him next time." Shadow promised.

　　"But next time they'll know we're coming, right? Now that they know our scrying signatures." Yume worried.

　　"Maybe we can work something out with Platinum's group." Shadow shrugged. "For now you two just have to heal up. We may have lost the factor of surprise. But at least they're down two Choice Givers. We're doing fine."

　　"Let's run around the block and then take a hot bath." Yume suggested. "Or will that wash off my bandage?"

　　"You should stick to sponging off the rest of your body and leave your wound alone." Shadow advised.

　　"No way. I want the strongest shower possible. I want the water to be superfast hot needles that flay me alive. I'm not taking another sponge bath in my life." Yume announced.

　　"I guess that's okay. There's very little flesh between your skin and your ribcage." Shadow sighed. "But remember, he won't attack your heart next time. If he has any brains, he'll stab a different vital point without any bones. Your throat, or your kidney. It'll be a one hit kill. We lost that surprise too."

　　"But he lost his." Yume smiled. "I hope he walks near me again. If only I hadn't tripped, I would've had him today."

　　"That rifle is too big for you." Shadow blinked. "Couldn't you have thought of a different strongest weapon?"

　　"I thought it was tied down really securely." Yume complained. "You don't mind being grafted to my skin all day, do you?" Yume's suit was her entire skeleton, nervous system, and everything else that was broken in the accident. Meanwhile, wyrds were always incorporated into their mistress's suits when active. The magical compromise had been part of Yume's skin folding out and being left with the gray sphere right at the juncture of her ribcage below her throat. Yume didn't mind. She thought Shadow was pretty inside of her. But she wasn't about to fold her suit out and let Shadow float free again.

　　"Wyrds are a very patient species. I'm content." Shadow said.

　　"Ryu, I'm off for a jog!" Yume waved at the front door, putting on her shoes, which she delightfully kicked firmly on by pounding the toe of her shoe against the ground while balancing on her other foot.

　　Ryu gave a muffled curse which she took for a 'have a nice time.' Burn wounds were extremely painful, but Yume thought he was being a bit of a sissy. For all his grumbling, the girl's punch had been quite small compared to the size of a dragon's body. Ryu grumbled about a lot of things, but he never took his anger out on her, so all in all, she didn't mind.

　　"Let's try hopping down the first street." Yume smiled at the prospect, closing the door behind her.

* * *

　　"I don't get that girl." Ryu grumbled to Flame, a wet towel over his face and a sack of ice over his abdomen. "I thought she was depressed."

　　"She was depressed. Which means now that it's over she's ecstatic." Flame corrected.

　　"But doesn't she know she's killing people?" Ryu complained.

　　"She knows. She just doesn't care." Flame glowed a satisfied orange. Shadow really had chosen well. Of course, Ryu wouldn't lose to her.

　　"But why? I mean, I know she was in a car wreck and all." Ryu and Yume had talked it all out over coffee and doughnuts and both had empathized with each other. "But it's not like these people did anything to her."

　　"Sure they did. While she was laying in bed paralyzed, they were walking around, laughing, making love, taking baths, and playing catch. They probably all danced a jig together too. It's inexcusable, when you think about it." Flame explained.

　　"Jealousy?" Ryu knitted his brows.

　　"If you want to call the Big Bang an explosion, then yes, I guess you could say she was jealous." Flame replied.

　　"But she doesn't look angry." Ryu objected.

　　"She isn't. It's like I said. She doesn't care." Flame repeated patiently.

　　"You aren't making any sense." Ryu growled.

　　"Sorry, I keep forgetting humans can't scry." Flame searched for the words to describe what he he saw when he scryed Yume's soul.

　　"Take a chemical reaction. In chemistry, things can suddenly transform from one substance into another, right?" Flame asked.

　　"Right." Ryu agreed slowly. His college chemistry courses had been a long time ago.

　　"But ordinarily they'd do that right away, or they wouldn't react at all. That's why most of the time nothing's fizzing or burning or exploding when you leave it alone." Flame continued.

　　"Right." Ryu followed.

　　"It takes the addition of a catalyst to change this formula. With a catalyst, the resistance to change is lowered, and suddenly chemical reactions that couldn't occur in the past become possible. Physics has the same story. There are energy wells where electrons like to sit if undisturbed. It takes a certain amount of energy to force them out of a state of 'rest,' where they go and do more interesting things. If left alone, they'll eventually settle back down into another energy well, and wait for the next disturbance, unable to change their own properties because they're trapped by the path of least resistance to always stay the same." Flame said.

　　"So what?" Ryu asked.

　　"The ethical equivalent of energy wells is compassion. It makes you not want to hurt others. It makes you care about the interests of others. It stops reactions that ordinarily would occur, if people were purely selfish, and introduces a steep hill you must be propelled over to reach the limitless heights of amorality. Humans short circuit their desires with all these checks and balances, and keep themselves on a narrow unreactive leash. You could say compassion makes humans into noble gasses. Quite boring people, really. They cease doing anything out of the ordinary." Flame explained.

　　"The two of you, on the other hand, are very special humans. Neither of you feels any compassion. It has been burnt out of you. You aren't on leashes anymore. You can do whatever you want, even if the incentive is incredibly tiny. It can be vengeance, or anger, or jealousy. Or in Yume's case, it can just be gratitude for walking free again. You see, she's happy doing this job. If you burn away that resistance, it's like creating a frictionless plane that a marble can roll anywhere over. Yume is a free-rolling marble who doesn't care where she roams. If killing people can express her gratitude, or even let her jump and play about, well, that's a small benefit. And there's no cost at all. Because she no longer cares about the cost. When she experienced so much suffering that no one else could ever arouse her pity again, when she learned to pity herself more than everyone else on Earth combined, she rated other people's pain down further and further. Every day she lay on her hospital bed, she degraded the importance of the pain of others to a yet more irrelevant and puny level compared to hers. And at a certain point, on a certain day, she degraded their pain down to zero, and realized that she was the only person suffering on Earth. Everyone else, no matter what happened to them, relatively speaking, was happy, and had nothing to complain about. They had no right to whine at all. She was the only victim on Earth."

　　"When I scry Yume Minami, I don't see a shape or form. There's only darkness. Her soul is a bottomless pit that gets darker the further you fall, which shouldn't even be possible, but there it is. Yume doesn't think of herself as a person anymore. She realized that at some point, long ago, she had already died. From there on she was just experiencing Hell. Her soul is Hell. It's an infinite Abyss. Try throwing in all the pain and suffering of the entire world, every mortal second of it, and throw it into that Abyss. Divide it by infinity. What do you get?" Flame asked.

　　"Zero." Ryu realized.

　　"And there you have it. From her point of view, she doesn't have to care about anyone else anymore, because no matter what she does to them, it all amounts to nothing. She's divided this world by infinity. For someone who's lived in Hell, folded surface dwellers have nothing to complain about. Everyone's lost the right to complain but her." Flame said.

　　"I guess she thinks my complaints are pretty ridiculous too, huh?" Ryu Kitamura mused.

　　"Oh yes. But don't worry. She likes you. You might not be on the same level, but you're kindred spirits all the same." Flame said.

　　"By design?" Ryu asked.

　　"Of course." Flame replied. "Shadow and I are a two man team. Always have been. Always will be."

　　"It's weird. I hate women. But I don't hate her." Ryu admitted.

　　"Once this is all over maybe you two could live together." Flame suggested cheerfully.

　　"Heh. Maybe." Ryu winced as he sat up in bed. If Yume was going to take a shower, it wouldn't hurt to have dinner ready for her when she came out.

* * *

　　Saki Sakai fell onto her bed face first. What had she gotten herself into? What was she going to tell Eri when they got to school? It was all messed up. She hadn't even gotten to eat her birthday cake. Plus her face hurt from where Eri had punched her.

　　Saki laughed into her pillow. That felt like a lifetime ago. But she supposed it was only an hour. Saki never imagined Eri could make a face like that. She had always seemed so mature. For once Saki had beaten her at something. It felt wonderful.

　　Her short lived reverie came to an end as Aiko entered their mutual room behind her. She sat down on Saki's bed and ran a finger up her back.

　　"How are you holding up?" Aiko asked.

　　"I didn't save the day. I looked like an idiot. My older sister tricked me." Saki complained into her pillow. She had worn such a pretty green skirt, brown shirt and white vest, too. But all everyone would remember her for would be her spiky black armored dwarf mode. Capri had told her to imagine the strongest armor possible, and that obviously meant full plate mail. What else could she have chosen?

　　"Ehehee." Aiko kept petting Saki's back. "Sorry about that."

　　"My older sister‘s an idiot jerk." Saki mumbled into her pillow.

　　"I only started down this path half a year ago, so I can understand. I bet you have a lot of questions, right? I told Chiharu to leave it to me." Aiko kept soothing her little sister with her makeshift massage.

　　"A lot of questions!" Saki sat up indignantly at the understatement, making Aiko yelp and fall off the bed.

　　"Sorry! Are you okay?" Saki said automatically, and then her anger escaped her due to the ridiculousness of it all and she was laughing. Aiko crawled back on to the bed, smiling that the storm had broken.

　　"You get off for that because it's your birthday." Aiko pretended to scowl.

　　"Sorry. I really didn't mean to." Saki laughed again. Then she got to business. Let's see, what should she ask first? The list was nearly infinite.

　　"Capri was an alien all along?" Saki made her choice and began.

　　"A wyrd. To them, we're the aliens. It's only polite to call each other humans and wyrds." Aiko corrected.

　　"A wyrd then. What does that mean?" Saki asked.

　　"In celtic folklore, an inescapable personal fate. Sort of like what star you're born under. It's the closest term to what they call themselves in their language. Maybe they're the people who have embraced their fates. Or the people whose fate weighs heavily upon them. Or the readers of fate. Or the people chosen by fate. But wyrds will do. It's the name they chose to tell us." Aiko replied.

　　"I suppose that should be the most surprising part. But looking back. . ." Saki smiled.

　　"Capri wasn't very good at hiding herself, was she?" Aiko said ruefully.

　　"You weren't any good at hiding Capri either." Saki laughed, thinking back. "But okay, so there are aliens. Why are they fighting each other? And why here? Couldn't they do that back where they came from?"

　　"The wyrds have two factions. The official government faction wants to uplift mankind. The other faction, the dark wyrds, want to destroy mankind. They can't do either from home, so, here they are." Aiko spread out her hands.

　　"Only two?" Saki joked.

　　"You know, that's true. Human have what, 200 countries? And a dozen competing political parties in each country. And that's just one planet. Wyrds are an intergalactic empire. Two seems a little sad." Aiko agreed.

　　"I bet if we lived there, we'd notice more distinctions." Saki suggested.

　　"Maybe." Aiko said dubiously. "I get the sense that the more advanced you become, the more similar you become. Sort of like that quote."

　　"Happy families are all happy in the same way." Saki started, catching it immediately.

　　"But unhappy families are each unhappy in their own special way." Aiko finished. "Have I mentioned recently what a brilliant little sister I have?"

　　"Maybe." Saki smiled. "But I just remember the quotes. You even read the boring parts of Tolstoy."

　　"Tolstoy isn't boring. He's thorough." Aiko corrected primly.

　　"I feel like we're drifting further and further away from the topic." Saki laughed. After a moment Aiko laughed too.

　　"Let's get a cake." Aiko suddenly suggested.

　　"What?" Saki asked.

　　"It doesn't have to be anything special. Let's walk to the convenience store together and buy a cake. How about one with strawberries on top?" Aiko suggested.

　　"Okay." Saki agreed, feeling just a bit excited at the prospect. She was eleven years old now, far too old to care whether she got a birthday cake for her birthday or not. But it was so sweet of Aiko to care. It was like she was the most perfect sister of all time.

　　"We'll get a small one, just the two of us." Aiko grabbed her purse and opened the door.

　　"I'll ask questions while we walk." Saki promised, stepping down the stairs and fetching her shoes.

　　"Mother, Father, we're going out for a bit. Is that okay?" Aiko called out.

　　"Where are you going?" Mother asked through the door.

　　"Just to the convenience store." Aiko promised.

　　"Have a safe trip." Mother gave her okay.

　　"We'll be right back." Aiko promised again, and then they were out the door.

　　It was a cool night. Summer was fading away and Fall was moving in. It was that wonderful time of year where you could actually stay outdoors for more than five minutes without feeling miserable . The stars were out, and the moon was half full. The chaos at the amusement park felt unreal. The city was as quiet and safe and cozy as ever. It hummed with a collection of night sounds from the wind, insects, and cars passing in the distance.

　　"We're the good guys, right?" Saki asked as they strolled down the street.

　　"You bet. We're the best." Aiko answered confidently.

　　"So we just go to school by day and fight dark wyrds by night?" Saki asked.

　　"Like Batman? No." Aiko laughed. "They attack during the day too. We don't get to pick and choose. But mainly, they don't attack at all. There are only so many dark wyrds left. Shiori figured out a way to cut them off from sending any new reinforcements from the etheric plane, so they only attack when they're really confident it will work."

　　"Shiori? Who's that?" Saki asked.

　　"You know, Chiharu's friend. She's actually our leader. Everyone looks up to her. Somehow you feel like everything will be okay when she's around. Even though we're all stronger than she is." Aiko smiled coyly. "But don't tell her I said that."

　　"I won't." Saki agreed. "Okay, so what do I do when they do attack?" Saki followed up with what was important.

　　"Capri will tell you ahead of time and we'll all get together." Aiko said.

　　"I don't remember it happening that way. . ." Saki looked at her sister askance.

　　"Maybe they had magic to suppress their presence. But it won't work again. All our wyrds know who they are now. They could scry that pair out from kilometers away." Aiko reassured Saki. "The important thing is that you find out what magic you've manifested, and how to use it. You saw how close that fight was. We need you, Saki. I'm useless in a fight, all I can do is read minds. My armor is a bra and panties."

　　"You mean that pair you always wear?" Saki asked.

　　"Mmhmm. We're here." Aiko said, looking up at the brightly lit 'open all hours' sign.

　　Saki was surprised. She felt like they had just stepped out of the house. It really was fun hanging out with her older sister.

　　"Wait! You can read minds?" Saki snapped.

　　"Not so loud!" Aiko put a finger over her lips, glaring.

　　"So every day and every night in our room together, you've known every single thing I ever thought?" Saki whispered, her eyes aghast.

　　"Maybe." Aiko turned her eyes sideways and whistled.

　　"So every time I thought you were being considerate or wise or empathetic or personable, every time I ever looked up to you for any reason?" Saki asked as they searched the counters for their purchase.

　　"Every time." Aiko confessed.

　　"Then, even this sudden idea to buy a cake?" Saki realized.

　　"I heard you missing it, and I wanted to make your birthday whole again. I was reading your mind then too." Aiko confirmed.

　　"So aren't you really a horrible person?" Saki complained.

　　"How about this one?" Aiko leaned down and picked out two slices of strawberry topped, vanilla frosted, lemon cake.

　　"Okay." Saki agreed happily.

　　"I don't know about horrible." Aiko smiled, going to the front of the store to pay the clerk. "I'm just using the gifts God gave me."

　　"Hardly! You chose eavesdropping as your magic!" Saki pursued.

　　"Thank you for your patronage, come again." The clerk returned Aiko's change and escorted them out the door.

　　"Thank you," Aiko bowed back to him, then broke into a smile and pointed a new direction. "There's a bench at a park this way. But that's just the thing. We don't choose our magic. We choose our strongest armor and our strongest weapon, but our magic is whatever our inner hearts secretly wish for most. You could say it's our manifested soul. I wanted to connect to others, more than anything else in the world. So God gave me this. And I did connect to others. Thanks to my magic, my life is so blessed. I don't think that makes me horrible."

　　"My magic's what I wished for most?" Saki asked, thinking it over. But what did she wish for most? All she could think of is that she wanted to be like Aiko. That had been her dream since they started really being friends. She didn't think transforming into an Aiko clone would be very useful in battle.

　　"I'm sorry if you feel a little betrayed. I didn't notice anything about you due to considerateness like you thought, it's all because I cheated. I'm actually terrible with people. But there's one thing you should know, Saki. I've read so many of your thoughts, I think I know you better than anyone. And I love you. I really, truly love you. The real you. Through and through." Aiko said.

　　Saki blushed and kept her head down, her head spinning. This was probably what feeling drunk felt like.

　　"Doesn't your armor feel a little heavy?" Aiko joked, changing the subject.

　　"Nope. I thought of that. The strongest armor would be as heavy as plate but as light as a feather. That way even I could wear it. The weapon too. I thought how strong I'd be if I could wield a giant hammer that still weighed as much as a feather. I could swing it like some sort of rapier, even though I'm just eleven. I figured I could clobber the dragon pretty good like that." Saki replied.

　　"Have I mentioned how brilliant my little sister is recently?" Aiko mused.

　　"Stop it." Saki blushed an even deeper red. "You're embarrassing me."

　　"Sorry." Aiko apologized, placing their cake down on a stone table and getting out a pair of plastic forks.

　　"Just lean over the box, we don't have any plates." Aiko warned.

　　It was a gorgeous park overlooking a stream. Saki noticed the dark silhouette of the city library nearby, and guessed that was why Aiko knew about the place. She took her fork, said "Itadakimasu!," and swallowed her first bite. It was a delicious mix of flavors at just the right level of moisture. She hadn't realized how hungry she was before now. They had all missed dinner because of the fight. It was hands down the best birthday cake ever.

　　"I keep getting distracted." Saki complained. "Okay, so there are aliens, and we fight them with magic, but I have to find out my soul's desire to unlock it. And we're winning the fight but we still need everyone we can get, up to and including dwarven little sister dark knights like me."

　　"Sounds good so far." Aiko encouraged. "Except I keep telling you they're wyrds."

　　"Right, wyrds." Saki corrected herself, taking another bite of cake. "But why us? The wyrds should have chosen soldiers on both sides."

　　"That's the fun part. The dark wyrds choose the evilest people they can, and the light wyrds choose the goodest people they can, so complete amateurs get to fight it out." Aiko said.

　　"Goodest?" Saki asked, laughing.

　　"I had to preserve the parallelism." Aiko defended herself.

　　"It's that boy. He's infecting you with all these non-existent words." Saki teased.

　　"Leave Kyoshi out of this. By the way he doesn't know anything so don't tell him." Aiko pleaded.

　　"Yes, sister." Saki finished her cake and looked around a little morosely for more.

　　"Maybe you're really good. I can even believe Chiharu's really good. But I'm not. Eri's way better than me." Saki continued.

　　"That was, well. . .an abuse of power. . ." Aiko looked away guiltily. "It was an emergency. I thought Masanori was going to die. Masanori's more important than the rules, you see. He's making portals to alternate dimensions and seeding them with new human communities. We just had to save him. I had to do something."

　　"He's making portals -- ? No, never mind. We're all magical girls. That's normal now." Saki shook her head.

　　"Masanori might not like being called a magical girl." Aiko grinned.

　　"Magical boys and girls, then." Saki corrected.

　　"He might not like that term either." Aiko laughed.

　　"Leave me alone!" Saki griped.

　　"Says the sister who wouldn't leave 'goodest' alone." Aiko retorted.

　　"You're older than me! You can act a little more mature! So okay, on a scale of 1 to 10, how good am I? How much of an exception to the rules am I?" Saki asked the important question.

　　"You're just fine, Saki. You aren't a Choice Giver. That's okay. There's only around fifty of us on Earth. But you're still just fine. You're an emulator. You emulate someone who is a Choice Giver, so you can be just as good as any of us, or even better." Aiko said.

　　"Who?" Saki asked.

　　"Well, me." Aiko blushed. "You look up to me a lot."

　　Saki blushed too. She should have seen that one coming.

　　"Here," Aiko said, holding out her hand. "Happy birthday, Saki."

　　It was her sister's slice's one and only strawberry.