“What the fuck…” Jessica whispered to herself as she made her way through the street.

Apparently, Salem – yes, that Salem – used to be Pretty Spark, a magical girl. There was something so fundamentally wrong about this image that Jessica’s mind was permanently stuck on it and had a hard time even moving to process all the other bombshells Max had dropped on them.

His moms used to be magical girls too? The demon lord and the magical girls used to be besties? The fifth weapon destroyed the entire world?

Jessica waited for the automatic doors to open before entering the building.

That must have been it, right? Since the fifth one was so dangerous, who could say what the other four could do? Maybe they were stable now, but would that last? The demons, or rather, the demon lord, had to know something more.

Jessica grabbed one of the shopping carts and ventured inside the supermarket.

And that must have also been the reason why he had kept the charade going all this time, pretending to be evil and fighting the magical girls. Maybe telling them everything would destabilize their attunement and then make their weapons explode? Or something…?

Actually, that didn’t make much sense, now that she thought about it. After all Salem was definitely in on the secret and she used to be a magical girl – yes, that Salem used to be a magical girl, Jessica had to remind herself.

Two boxes of Blueberry Cheerios went into the shopping cart before Jessica continued walking.

Did it have something to do with the magical girls losing power? There was the whole generations thing… Which, wow, wasn’t that a shocker? Apparently, the glamor magic hid even the fact that the weapons had changed wielders over time, which… totally made sense in retrospect. The magical girls had been active for way too long to still be teenagers. Either way, perhaps there was a limit to how many times that power could be inherited before everything went boom…? And it just so happened that the number for the fifth weapon was zero?

Oh hey, Peaches were on sale. Might as well take a couple.

But why were the magical girls losing their powers in the first place? What caused it? Did they need to do something to start losing the attunement? Or was it their mind? Learning something specific made it happen, and that was why the magical girls were kept in the dark? Or maybe it just happened randomly after some time…? 

Jessica checked the use-by date on the milk carton before adding it to her loot pile inside the shopping cart.

Whatever it may have been, she decided not to tell the magical girls anything for now. At least until she, hopefully, learned more at the trial thingamajig. For the time being, she needed to prepare herself for the upcoming attack. The magical girls against herself and Salem… who was a former magical girl, – yes, that Sa–

“Gah!” Jessica yelled out as something bumped into her as she was backing out.

A rough masculine voice grunted behind her.

Jessica turned around to spot an imposing man towering over her and glaring down at her. He looked familiar…

“Sorry, dude,” Jessica said on reflex.

The man’s glare only intensified. Thanks to which, Jessica finally recognized him. It was Forneus. Or rather, the guy who used to be Forneus.

“Watch it, kid!” he snapped.

Jessica couldn’t help but grin, remembering all the great memories she had with him. Pepper spraying his face, gloating over him… Ahh, good times.

“Sorry about that. Was a little lost in thought.”

Naturally, he growled even more aggressively at that and mumbled, “Fucking brat making fun of me…” before he walked past her with his own shopping cart and left.

Huh…

Jessica briefly wondered how his life had been going since he had gotten dismissed from the demon army and his memories of it were wiped. Probably not too hot considering how cranky he seemed.

Jessica stared at the man’s back as he rounded the corner and disappeared behind an aisle. She shrugged.

Well, he totally deserved it for being a giant asshole and ruining her date. Nothing of value had been lost.

Jessica turned around and continued on her own shopping adventures.

That said, this encounter reminded her of another weird aspect of the demon army. The whole… ‘if you get sealed as a general, you’re out’ thing. Was that weird rule also part of the whole mystery? Would keeping those generals around speed up the supposed inevitable destruction of the world?

Jessica walked in silence as she pondered those questions. Then she stopped as she remembered something.

“Oh, right… Gotta get more toilet paper.”

She turned around as she shuffled through her thoughts again.

Not much she could do about the inevitable apocalypse until she learned the other half of the story. However, she could refocus on trying to develop the fifth weapon – without causing the aforementioned apocalypse, hopefully – now that she knew the magical girls’ powers were based on seasons rather than elements.

Yeah, no wonder her prototypes never worked. It wasn’t air or wind or whatever, it was some mysterious fifth season… Which didn’t make much sense, frankly speaking. There were only four, after all.

Oh nice, they had her favorite olive oil shampoo with a special two plus one limited-time offer. Into the cart with it.

Well, the seasons were a construct made up by humans anyway, weren’t they? They weren’t really some kind of fundamental force of nature or whatever. So maybe that was it? Were those powers based on… what, humanity’s culture? That didn’t make a whole lot of sense either…

Two batches of toilet paper. Should last her a while.

The weird thing was how easy the magical girl weapon counterparts, the demon general weapons, were to make in comparison. They weren’t limited at all. Jessica alone had already made three, not to mention Cody’s and Max’s weapons.

Was that in any way relevant? Something to do with the demon realm’s version of seasons? Well, except… it didn’t have any seasons. It was just eternally dead – thanks to the fifth weapon, as she had learned.

Jessica stopped as something clicked in her head.

So technically… the demon realm only had one season…? Could it… No but… The magical girls’ weapons were supposed to be based on energies from Earth. Moreover the demon realm probably had seasons before that incident, right…?

…

Did it? She didn’t actually know.

Her eyebrows scrunched up. She felt like she was onto something, but still felt like there were missing pieces she didn’t know about.

So frustrating…

As she made her way to the cashier, she spotted the ex-demon general guy again and couldn’t help but smirk, as the memory of his stupefied face flashed in front of her.

At least the good dose of nostalgia made her feel better.

BottledChaos

Next time: "At last!" or "In the meantime, nobody noticed the shadows slip by."