I have been watching you for a very long time, young lady.

The purple racoon-looking mascot appeared on top of her locker and started speaking in her mind with his strangely youthful boyish voice.

“Me? Why?” She didn’t ask why this creature was stalking her. That was the least of the questions mounting in her mind.

You have it, the animal gravely said.

“Have it?” With a gasp, she flushed, a little disturbed by the way it could talk right into her mind, but that aside, this was everything she always wanted. “I have it?!” Her eyes went wide and she cast her eyes around to see if there was anyone witnessing her great moment. “Do it! Make me a magical girl!” She spread her arms to her sides and closed her eyes.

“W-what?” The animal was startled enough to speak aloud and she peeked with a happy little smile, noticing his confused expression.

“That’s what this is about right? You’re wanting to recruit me to become a warrior of justice and love, right?” Her heart fluttered and to her embarrassment, her smile probably had become somewhat sappy. Visions of her all time favorite magical girls filled her mind. What did she want to look like? What would she end up looking like?

“... how much do you know about Felicitas?” the purple beaver-thing asked. 

“Nothing yet… but you’re the mascot character. You can offer me special powers. Just shut up and hit me with my new powers!”

“V-very well… Never in my life have I… — Very well. Think carefully and speak your true name unto me so that a contract may be signed between us.”

Her heart beat wildly in her chest, happy that she was really becoming a real magical girl! Closing her eyes, she thought about the animal’s question and spoke her name with a bigger smile, “Ami Haruna.”

“...” The mascot facepalmed. “No… Not your common…” He let out an annoyed sigh, not sounding like a typical mascot. Were they supposed to be this serious? “I mean to say — not the name that your parents gave you upon your birth.”

Ami looked at the mascot with a blank expression. What other name could she have? Class Pres? That was a title, not a name. Sugarplum? Her Grandmother hadn’t called her that since hse passed away years ago. She had a feeling that wouldn’t work out, even though there were some magical girl series with such naming schemes. Since she didn’t want to be known as Sugarplum — something, she didn’t volunteer that particular name.

The animal gazed at Ami for a long moment and shrugged. “Very well. It seems clear that you know less than you led me to think about how this works.” In a flash, there was a weight on her shoulder and Ami couldn’t help opening her eyes and looking face to face at the furry animal sitting on her. He was awfully cute, despite how serious he was. This was very close to how a mascot character should be, perhaps minus a cheerful nature.

“You will become a soldier in our battle against the anti-light existence. You will serve us faithfully and protect your world, no… the whole universe. You will lay down your life for our cause, do you understand?” Ami felt a shiver at those words. It sounded more serious than she thought, but even so, she wanted this more than anything. No matter what she went through in the process, she would accept nearly any terms for the privilege of becoming a true magical girl!

“I do,” Ami said, nodding.

The creature sunk his essence into her through her shoulder. She saw an aura of purple light emanating from her new furry friend as it somewhat merged with her own. Ami’s eyes glazed somewhat. “Tell me your true name, girl.”

Ami hesitated on the point of speaking her name again, but something was now nudging at her from the depths of her heart or soul. It teased the edges of her mind like butterfly wings. “Speak it and seal our contract.”

“G… Glacia…” Ami said, drained of energy.

“Be born anew, Lodestar Glacia.” All light left Ami’s eyes and she was suddenly filled with an unbearably strong energy, feeling wintry cold and yet hot as the sun itself. A star blossomed within her, igniting like a bonfire with too much gasoline thrown on it. Her mind was very nearly overwhelmed. 

“Lodestar Glacia is finally awakening.”

Yawning and stretching and wincing as her muscles ached, Glacia muttered softly under her breath as she attempted to lean forward. Her body was heavy, jerky. Her forehead suddenly whacked against a hard curved surface. Opening her eyes, she looked around, discovering that she was floating in some kind of a fluid-filled glass-like structure. There wasn’t much to see except that she was surrounded by something like a liquid light that filled her body while supporting it as though it was water. While she could see the structure she’d bumped into, she couldn’t clearly see outside, since it was a bit mirror-like.

Moving her hands, there was a sensation of resistance as one would expect of being suspended in a tank of water, but it was actually pure light that she floated in and she could breathe, which meant there was a breathable atmosphere. The light felt… thick like a kind of runny pudding.

“How do you feel, Lodestar Glacia?” Perkons asked, speaking directly to her. Wincing, Glacia turned in every direction, finding nothing, not that she expected to see him. These ‘gods’ had a disturbing habit of invading her mind most of the time. In time, she’d started getting the heebie-jeebies when they did it.

“I feel fine, I guess,” Glacia mumbled. “Where am I?”

“Light therapy,” Perkons explained. “Heals the body, restores everything to the way it was meant to be. It can even help restore a subject's mind, but there are limits to what we can do with our light powers in that department. That aside, how do you feel about what happened to you today?”

Glacia frowned, pursing her lips. “What do you mean?” She wasn’t sure what Perkons was getting at here. She’d never been in a fight ever before. She felt like nothing would happen at all. There was no training or anything, either. They’d recruited her and told her that she’d be activated when needed several weeks ago.

“That’s not good. We didn’t wipe your memories of your experiences today,” Perkons said. “Do you remember anything?”

Holding her own head, Glacia shook her head as she struggled to remember. There was something, but… the memory lurked in her mind like a dark spider hiding behind its nebulous web. 

Don’t look at me! Don’t remember!

Most of her wanted her to remain ignorant, but as she floated, she was filled with determination and forced herself to brush aside the web and face the spider.

A flood of memories of her fight and subsequent capture filled her mind like a tsunami hit it. 

The sensation of icy-cold filling her body as she was bound, paralyzed, immobilized, demeaned, warped, different from her ice powers. Having her energy sapped from her body as the bolt of non-light energy lanced through her body.

Her heart pounded as she faced her suppressed memories, memories of the sensations of being turned. “I… I… I'm hurt!” Glacia exclaimed as her eyes welled with tears.

“That’s normal, considering. Glacia, take deep breaths and relax. Think about the warmth and life that you must sense in the light. Never forget what you felt while you were cocooned as a lesson to not be caught again, but always look to the light for comfort after facing the darkness.”

“... That’s awfully easy for you to say, you little…” Glacia muttered, resenting Perkons for not saving her. Or had he? Why was she okay?

Strange visions filled her mind, things that she saw when she was cocooned. “Damn it… she’s… she was…”

She had visions of a woman adorned by the void as though it was a dress. Tentacles flailed from the sides of her head. There were openings resembling empty-looking eyes in her face, gazing deeply at her. There was an abyss where her mouth would be, seemingly leading into another dimension as the being transfixed her with her gaze. 

She was truly terrifying, stupefying. Horrific… and strangely beautiful.

She was her… what?

Rellawing

Please check out Assurbanipal II's work. I also want to mention MajorKerina, who has been writing much longer than myself.

Sorry for the delay! I hope you enjoy this chapter!

No more misfortune has struck me since the last release except for the snow not having melted by now. So my plans to fix my car are delayed for another week. '^^