Chapter 6: Chapter 6: The Other New Magical Girl

Rory sat with his legs dangling off the edge of a high-rise. Carina had assured him that, if he fell, his powers would protect him from becoming a splatter on the ground. The sun was high overhead and the city below them was alive with sound. Being on the roofs felt like being on the ocean’s surface with all the activity stirring beneath them.

The reveal of Rory’s identity on TV had shaken things up a little with his parents. There had been a lot of speechifying about how worried they were for him and how this was going to affect his life. For a few days, they had strongly urged him to quit the job every time he saw them, not that it happened often. Finally, they caved and took him out of school when he returned home with a black eye. At least being homeschooled gave him more time to patrol.

“You ready to go?” Carina asked.

“Yeah.”

Rory climbed to his feet and stretched. He took off running for the edge of the building and leapt. Wind rushed in his ears as the ledge of the other building got closer. Landing gracefully on the balls of his feet, Rory skid to a stop.

“We can also just walk around on street level,” Carina suggested, folding her arms.

“This is more fun,” Rory insisted.

He could run for a lot longer than he used to be able to. And, at least this way, he didn’t have to deal with the awkward gawking from every person on the street. Traffic was also pretty bad today, for some reason, and it would be hard to find opportunities to cross the road.

After a few more rooftops, Carina said, “I sense something. That way.”

Rory followed her direction, and in a couple of blocks he could sense it too. Only faintly, but it was there. The sound of a car alarm was blocking out anything else. But as Rory got closer, he could hear the screech of crushing metal and his heart sank.

He jumped from the roof and landed on the sidewalk, sprinting forward. Rounding a corner, he saw the situation. In the middle of a an intersection was a red plant that nearly reached the street lights.

At it’s center was a large pitcher filled with a sloshing clear liquid. Vines covered in long blue needles whipped about, smashing cars and street signs and slamming into the walls of nearby buildings. One vine was wrapped around a screaming man who was being held over the pitcher.

A Vietnamese girl wearing a short dress made of plate armor and chain mail leapt into the air. The sword in her hand began to glow white and shifted until it was a long scythe. She collided with the man, wrapping one arm around him as she severed the vine, and the two flew away from the plant’s grasp.

“She’s good,” Rory muttered.

Liv Tran had been the premier magical girl before Amira Zaman entered the scene. At nineteen, she was the oldest and most experienced. Despite that, she seemed to be having trouble with the sheer number of thrashing vines.

“I’m going in,” Rory declared, gripping his staff tightly and taking off.

He entered the fray with a yellow swipe, which cut some of the vines but not enough to sever them. Several charged at him, so he surrounded himself with a violet barrier and jumped straight up. He sent a red lance at the pitcher, but it didn’t pierce the skin.

“Hey!” A red pixie hovering above the scene had taken notice of Rory. “What are you doing!? We don’t need help!”

Liv didn’t acknowledge Rory. She raised her hand to manifest a second sword. Instead of hacking her way through the vines, though, she took a few steps back and started circling, only slicing the vines that got too close.

Rory charged straight for the heart of the creature, protecting himself again with a barrier. Maybe he could get close enough to create an opening for Liv to hit the pitcher. When he got right up to the plant’s body, he dropped the barrier and surrounded his staff with a green light, manifesting the image of a pickax. He slammed it into the monster, intending to use it to climb up the creature, but the construct shattered.

He swore and up a barrier right before another vine grabbed him.

The shield cracked under the blow. Rory grit his teeth and tried to figure out an escape route. But he was surrounded. The vine pulled back and shot at him again, but there was a glint of silver and it was severed as Liv came down right next to Rory. He dropped the barrier, breathing heavily.

She gave Rory a piercing glare. One of her swords turned into an ax, the other into a trident. Liv pressed up against him, gesturing at his staff with a nod. Rory threw up another barrier as several more vines slammed down on them.

Liv sheathed her trident and brought the ax down against the plant’s body. It didn’t react. The vines had stopped crashing into the barrier and were now trying to constrict it. Cracks started forming in the barrier as the daylight was suffocated. Still, Liv hacked at the plant, a foul-smelling yellow ooze leaking out.

Finally, Liv grabbed her trident and shoved it into the hole. Rory tried to reinforce the shield but several vines had pushed through and were flailing around. Liv pushed deeper, until her arms were practically in the wound. Her skin was foaming and turning red where the goo touched her. The plant matter around the injury started to glow red as energy built up in the trident.

There was a popping sound and the vines went slack. Rory dropped the barrier and they all fell right on top of him. He climbed out from the mess and glanced at the remains of the invader. Cars had been smashed, the road was going to be closed for months for repairs, and anything that had been splattered by goo was hissing as it melted away.

The creature was already starting to fade from their reality as the pixies approached them. Rory raised a hand to give Liv a high five, smiling softly. She ignored him and started signing to her pixie.

“We didn’t need your help,” Linette translated. “It’s bad enough that the bureau let a boy become a magical defender. The fact that you’re wearing a dress doesn’t mean that you belong here.”

“Hey!” Rory cried. “I was just here to help!”

“You were here to stick your nose into someone else’s business because you think the world revolves around you,” Liv continued signing. “All you boys do. This is supposed to be a chance for girls to find empowerment. Rich boys just looking for attention don’t belong here.”

Rory winced.

Carina said, “That’s not what this is about. We want everyone to be able to help each other, and you did need help.”

“We have been at this for years!” Linette snapped. “I don’t need some new upstart telling me and my partner how to take care of ourselves.”

Now that the fighting was over, civilians had started creeping closer to check out what was happening. Liv raised a hand to silence the pixies as people started pulling out their phones to record the fight. She knelt down and jumped, bouncing off of a pole to get some extra air and land on a low roof. Rory followed, easily replicating her maneuver.

“How do you do it?” he asked her. “How do you put up with the public attention? I… I thought I wanted this.”

She scowled at him, but then glanced down at his outfit and her expression softened.

“I don’t have an answer for you,” she signed. “All I can say is that everyone says it gets easier once you retire and people stop recognizing you as much.”

Rory sighed.

“Thanks,” he mumbled.

It felt like it was time to return home. Being the responsible kid that he was, Rory had put off his school work until after patrol instead of doing it right away. With a sigh, he sat down and opened up his textbook.

Now that he’d dismissed his powers, all his muscles were aching and he needed several ice packs. The magic ensured that he healed quickly from injuries, but soreness wasn’t a priority. Hopefully it meant that he was becoming stronger.

“I can’t believe that woman,” Carina mumbled, pacing the shelves. “If everyone was a bit more open to helping each other, we wouldn’t be having nearly as much trouble getting adjusted to all of this.”

“Hey, Carina?” Rory asked, glancing up from his book. “What are pixies usually supposed to do when their partners are busy? Don’t you get bored?”

Carina paused for a moment before answering, “I don’t really know. It wasn’t really covered in orientation, or the manual, or any of the training classes.”

“They really put you through the wringer for this, didn’t they?”

“They had to,” Carina replied. “You’re not in as much danger as, say, a firefighter, but you’re lives are in danger and we’re responsible for keeping you safe. There’s a lot that can go wrong when fighting planar invasions.”

“Well, thank you.”

Carina’s wings twitched and she smiled.

It was dinner time before Rory was finished with his school work for the day. He had a small, pleasant enough dinner with his parents. The mood around the apartment had shifted ever since they found out about his job.

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Returning to his room, Rory glanced at the bag of letters sitting by his desk. He sighed. People had been sending him all kinds of messages since his identity was revealed. A lot of fan mail for someone who hadn’t done anything yet. And a lot of hate mail, too. Worse, his previously low-profile social media accounts were always flooded with people trying to interact with him as well. It was a constant effort to prune through everything, to the point where he’d started avoiding the Internet more often than not.

Still, he needed something to help him veg out a little. He logged on and started sorting through all his alerts. Hopefully as people became more familiar with him, this would fall off a little and things could go back to normal.

Occasionally, he’d skim through some of the messages he saw. Most of them were very same-y and his eyes would glaze over as he read them. One in particular stood out, today, though.

“Hello,” this guy had written. “I’m probably bothering you, but I really wanted you to know how amazing it was for me to finally see a magical boy out in the world. I’ve never told anyone this, but I’ve always secretly wanted to be a magical boy myself and getting to see you out there fighting monsters, even if you’re still new at it, makes me feel like I might one day get to myself. Although, I don’t think I’d want to wear a dress while I’m doing it. But don’t let anything people say get you down! I know that you’re going to do great. Thank you so much for paving the way for the rest of us!”

Rory read the message several times. It warmed his heart. He favorited this guy’s contact info—Roberto Hernandez—just in case he sent Rory any further messages in the future.

That night, once Rory was finally done with his school work, he was feeling a little wound up. He told his parents he was going out for a bit, taking Carina with him. They knew what he was up to, of that much he was sure. There wasn’t really anything they could do to stop him.

It was getting dark out, but Rory wasn’t worried. He had magical powers to protect himself. And he was getting better at remembering the layout of the city, so he wasn’t as likely to get lost. Going on patrol more than once per day was probably going to leave him a little exhausted, admittedly, but he really needed something to help him unwind.

“We should just turn around and head back,” Carina said. “It’s not good to let this take up so much of your time. There are other ways to relax.”

“I’ll be fine,” Rory said. “I have to keep training. I need to get stronger.”

“Not at the cost of your mental health.”

Rory didn’t respond. Carina sighed but dropped the matter. She didn’t speak again until they were passing a construction site where a building had been mostly completed.

“That’s… weird,” she murmured.

“I can feel a slight tingle,” Rory said, glancing at her. “Is there an invader?”

“It’s not quit that feel.” Carina turned toward the fence, peering through at the building. “Come on.”

They hopped the fence and entered the empty building. Rory’s staff cast a soft light that dissipated quickly in the unusually heavy shadows. They were in a lobby, though there wasn’t any furniture. A light magical buzz, for lack of a better word, was emanating from below.

They found the stairs and began to descend. Rory’s heels clacked with every step. The strange hum of energy was getting a little stronger. When they got to the bottom, Rory opened the door and peaked out. The sound of the door was deafening, especially when it swung shut behind them.

“Is anyone here?” Rory asked.

The walls here were all concrete blocks, and the floor cement. Pipes ran through the open rooms but many hadn’t been fully installed yet. Rory walked slowly, keeping his ears perked. It wasn’t long before he heard shuffling and turned to follow that noise.

Light was coming from one doorway. Rory approached and glanced inside. There was a large machine with a lot of exposed wires and gears. Kneeling down in front of it, working with a set of tools, was a girl about his age with long blond hair.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” Rory asked.

The girl sighed and sat her tools down before standing up.

Without turning around, she said, “This is private property. You’re trespassing.”

“We just want to know what’s going on,” Carina said softly. “That machine, whatever it is, is giving off a magical signature.”

“I’m well aware.”

Rory tightened his grip on the staff.

“You’re the girl from before, aren’t you?” he asked. “The one who saved me from the jellyfish, right?”

The girl sighed and turned around. She raised her hand in a clenched fist and declared, “Shadow Weaving, activate.” The shadows in the room stretched and wrapped around her, growing black before dispelling to reveal her in a black bouffant dress and boots with her hair in twintails.

“Where’s your pixie?” Carina asked, her voice terse. “Every magical girl has a pixie.”

“Not me. Turn around and leave me alone.”

Rory shook his head, explaining, “Everything about you just seems a little off. And if you’re so determined to hide what you’re doing, it can’t be any good.”

“Rory,” the magical girl said, causing him to tense up in surprise, “you’re not strong enough to fight me.”

“You don’t know anything about me,” Rory retorted. “Just because you heard my name on the news—”

“You only have one friend in the world: your neighbor, Keaton Hoffman, although you don’t want to admit to yourself that you’re attracted to him.” Rory felt heat rushing to his face. “You’re weaker than any of the other magical girls in this city, all of whom you’ve met, now. You looked up to Amira Zaman the most, and it hurt the most when she rejected you.”

“What are… How are you doing this?” Rory demanded.

He was gripping his staff tight enough for his knuckles to turn white, but his hands were shaking.

Carina murmured, “Maybe we should go.”

“Your birthday is September nineteenth, you didn’t brush your teeth last night, and you still haven’t figured out what makes you eligible to be a magical defender. Part of you resents your pixie partner for knowing and not telling you, and you think that it might be the reason you don’t consider her a real friend.”

Rory didn’t say anything. He could feel Carina’s gaze on him. Who was this girl? What was actually going on here?

“Look—” he began, but the girl had already rushed forward.

A violet barrier went up almost automatically. Her fist came crashing into it, causing it to ripple but not to crack. Rory barely had time to take a breath before he was slammed into his own barrier from behind.

“Rory!”

His nose was in searing pain, making Rory’s eyes water. What felt like a hand wrapped around Rory’s ankle and pulled. He fell as his legs were yanked out from underneath him and Rory was dragged out of the room. Crying out, Rory tried to turn over and sent out an orange blast. The shadows parted and there was nothing there.

Rory sprang to his feet and cast a light with his staff, searching for whatever had grabbed him. Carina flew over and grabbed onto his shoulder.

“You’re outmatched,” the magical girl said from the doorway. “Run.”

“Rory, come on!” Carina cried, pulling at him.

He grit his teeth, but turned and ran for the stairs. He couldn’t fight what he couldn’t see. And if this girl was as strong as the other magical girls then Rory stood no chance.

A cackle rang out across the basement, chilling Rory to his very soul. He could hear a rush of wind that made bile rise up in his throat. Rory started to sway on his feet as he ran, his vision started to blur. The door seemed to stretch further and further away. The light from his staff grew more and more dim.

He swung the door open and ran into the stairway. It was dark but nowhere near as oppressive. Rory did not slow down, even though the sickening feeling was gone. Carina held on dearly. Once he was outside, Rory leapt the fence in one bound and scrambled to get home.