June 2023

  ***

  “How did you even let it get this bad?!” Minerva Crimson shouted over the deafening sound of rushing water.

  “What were we supposed to do in your opinion?” Luna of the Celestial Sisters responded, floating next to her, suspended by the powers of one of the magical rings she was wearing.

  “I don’t know! Maybe cast a barrier on this tear so it doesn’t flood the entire city?” Minerva suggested.

  “With what magic power? We don’t have that kind of artifact right now!”

  Minerva Crimson was currently hanging from the side of a tall shopping center, her cane sword stuck in the wall as a climbing handle while a torrent of water poured down the fa?ade onto the streets below. Above them, on the roof, a tear in reality itself gaped menacingly. It looked like a portal into a world of small, sandy islands and a vast crystal blue ocean – unfortunately the portal formed exactly at sea level and all that clear sea water was pouring out. And even worse, the tear was being opened even wider by a large object trying to force its way through.

  “Maybe we should deal with whatever’s trying to come through?”

  It was Bellona Azure who suggested a change of plans. No matter how much they were trying to stem the tide, if the tear in reality was opened any further it would make the current flood look like a refreshing summer rain.

  “Yes, yes, great idea! How do we do that?” This one was Sol who flew right next to Bellona as the two ascended and looked at the object lodged into the dimensional tear. It looked like a large beam of wood with planks and other beams sprouting from its sides. The water sloshed through the opening wherever it left gaps.

  Minerva and Luna ascended as well, assessing the object.

  “Doesn’t that look like the keel of a ship?” Sol suddenly said.

  “Oh right, when we were on tour in Spain we got to see ‘El Galeón Andalucía’!” Luna chimed in.

  “El what now?” Minerva was confused entirely.

  “It looks just like this old sailing ship! Western sailing ships that are even older than the legendary black ships!” Luna continued with some excitement.

  The hole creaked – as did the keel of the ship on the other side. The tear just got larger and dumped even more water on the streets below.

  “Damn it! Did they evacuate the road yet?” Minerva shouted and looked at the water that followed the main road. If nothing interfered the water would at least flow straight towards Kachidoki Bridge and then get dumped harmlessly into the Sumida’s brackish stream to join the ocean water in the bay.

  Sol put a hand on her ear where she wore her Bluetooth headset, always ready to get new orders from management.

  “There’s no one on the street anymore. But a lot of abandoned cars.” She confirmed. Bellona herself was the walking weapons arsenal of the group, so at the moment she simply kept quiet and listened as they planned.

  “Well screw the cars, the city has interdimensional incident insurance anyway.” Minerva concluded and pointed her magic cane towards the keel of the ship that tried to force its way through. She released a fireball of some size – and as it reached the keel it was deflected by a magic shield, its effect spreading sideways.

  “That was foolish.” Bellona proper chimed in.

  Hm? What? Oh. Oh no!

  The flames that were deflected to the side ate away at the dimensional barriers. What was originally a hole with a radius of two meters suddenly expanded as the flames licked at the desperate boundaries of reality and burned them like a piece of paper, widening them.

  “What did you do?!” screamed Sol.

  As they anticipated, there was a ship on the other side – a ship and an ocean’s worth of water. The galleon slid through the widened hole as Tokyo got its very own Niagara Falls.

  The Magical Girls flew aside to dodge the oncoming mass of wood shooting past them. Its sails were dyed black and eighteen gunports opened on each side. All four of them fully expected the vessel to shatter once it hit the ground, yet a pillow of water magically expanded under it, catching the galleon in a rough landing and starting to carry it down the street.

  “Uh.”

  “Huh.”

  “Well…”

  “This is so stupid…”

  The four Magical Girls were in agreement about the absurdity of their situation, then they exchanged some panicked looks and flew right after the ship to catch it.

  ***

  Catching up was no easy feat – once the ship started moving, it kept accelerating with the flowing water that flooded the main street. The Magical Girls needed to accelerate to top speeds to catch up. Bellona was pulling the Celestial Sisters along by their hands as their flying rings weren’t able to keep up. Minerva clung to the hull first, climbing along the speeding ship’s exterior and looking through the gunports – only to pull her head away with a disgusted expression.

  “Guh! It reeks!”

  “Cap’n, we’re bein’ boarded!” a shrill voice rang out, just as Bellona and the Celestial Sisters managed to catch the ship, clinging on for dear life. They started climbing and managed to reach the railing of the poop deck.

  “Boarded? By the Kraken, these landlubbers got a pair.”

  A head peeked over the railing and saw the four Magical Girls that clung on.

  “Sink Me! Without hook or rope, too! And they be wenches!”

  What stared down at them was a skeletal head wearing a pirate hat. Its jaw moved to accompany its words, making the rotting seaweed it was using as a beard sway.

  It raised a large tankard to its jaw and threw its head back. The stinking smell of strong alcohol filled the air as the skeletal pirate’s jacket got utterly soaked – no question that his chest was as skeletal as the rest of his body, rendering the act of drinking completely pointless.

  “Well, me hearties, I salute yer gall, but from here on out ye’ll be feedin’ the fishes.”

  His other hand pulled a flintlock pistol and pushed it against Sol’s head as she was about to climb over the railing. He didn’t give her time to react as he pulled the trigger, making her fall off the ship and into the water below after a loud bang.

  “MIYU!” screamed Luna and let go of the hull to go after her.

  “Luna, no-!” Minerva started to shout and sighed as the second Celestial Sister had already jumped off.

  “She has a ring of protection. She’ll be fine aside from a massive headache.”

  She added with only Bellona here to hear her.

  Bellona herself now jumped over the railing, summoning multiple flintlock long guns to her side while readying her halberd.

  “Arr, ye landlubbers be challengin’ me to a duel? Well, bring it on, lassie! Cap’n Crossbone never backs down from a fight!” The skeleton drew a cutlass and stormed towards Bellona. Steel met steel at first, with strike meeting parry, but before long Bellona felt completely annoyed.

  What are those movements?

  “I think they called this ‘drunken master’ in one of your old movies.”

  Bellona was blessed with good instincts for battle and by merging her mind with the crystalline warrior goddess Miori was able to wield her halberd efficiently – but this was like trying to play mind games against a complete beginner and button masher in a fighting game. Whenever Bellona anticipated a parry or a move, the drunken pirate did the exact opposite or stumbled out of the way. Sometimes he even fell to the ground after a stumble, swiping at her legs and forcing her to step away.

  Minerva in the meantime boarded as well and was kept busy by roughly five skeletons that stormed the bridge to assist their captain.

  “Bad news, Bellona.” Minerva shouted.

  “What?” Bellona answered as she tried to make the length of her halberd work in her favor – and somehow that drunken pirate captain managed to stumble his way past the blade’s reach into her face – while by all laws and logic of the universe he should have been impaled while attempting this approach.

  “We passed Kabukiza about a minute ago, so- “

  Bellona kicked the captain away and dared to look past the bowsprit while her long guns unloaded into the mass of approaching skeletons to give the two Magical Girls some breathing room.

  Kachidoki Bridge was approaching rapidly and the ship turned starboard – right towards the railing where pedestrians could look out on the river on a good day.

  The two Magical Girls lost their footing as the ship crashed into the barrier and tore it down – then everyone aboard floated as the ship fell and landed in the waters with a splash – without the Magical Girls, who landed right in the river itself.

  “All hands, towards the ocean’s blue! We’ll plunder the riches of their trade routes! For greater loot!” the captain shouted as Minerva and Bellona broke through the water’s surface and could only watch the ship sail away from them.

  “What now?” Bellona asked with a long sigh, looking to the foolish woman she loved.

  “What are you wearing?!” Bellona asked Minerva who let out a laugh and pointed towards her hat with her thumb. She wore a big pirate hat that perfectly matched her big, dumb grin.

  “Don’t I look dashing? I grabbed it off the captain’s head before we got sent flying.”

  “And what did that achieve?”

  “Don’t be so stuck-up, Bellona! We’re fighting skeletal pirates, so learn to have fun with it!”

  The ship below sailed along the river towards the greater Tokyo Bay, and they could hear the skeletons sing a shanty while working.

  “So, magic attacks don’t work. How about physical attacks? Do you think it could be sunk with… oh… ohohohohohoh!”

  Minerva laughed maniacally. Bellona didn’t like that one bit. She usually only did that when she came up with a brilliant or very stupid idea. It was probably a stupid one.

  “You can summon cannons!” Minerva pointed at Bellona.

  “Yes, but it takes time to set up, it exhausts me, and we can’t exactly lug them around to catch up to that ship.” Bellona countered, looking at the ship below.

  Minerva laughed again – Bellona didn’t like that, either. Then she pointed to some place in the bay and Bellona followed the gesture.

  As she found out what Minerva was pointing at, she liked it even less.

  “You’re insane.” She let out with a sigh but managed to smile with the corner of her mouth.

  ***

  “Sorry, but this ship is now under the command of Captain Minerva Crimson! All hands, abandon ship!”

  The red Magical Girl took control of a tour boat, a long tube of observation windows with an aft promenade deck, lying rather low in the water. Bellona was on said deck and was busy summoning multiple 36-pounder long guns in fixed positions.

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  “These things will tear the boat apart after only a few volleys, you know that?! This thing doesn’t really have anything to put gun carriages on so the cannons will be bolted right to the deck!” she shouted to the Magical Girl at the helm.

  “Then we better aim well!”

  Minerva was still wearing the pirate hat, using the controls to begin their pursuit of the pirates’ galleon.

  The boat was equipped with a surprisingly powerful motor. They managed to catch up soon as the pirate ship was already in the wider bay.

  As they were noticed, the pirate ship turned portside to bring them within its broadside. They saw the flashes and the smoke on its gunports before they heard the shots.

  “Hard port!” Minerva shouted as she spun the wheel, sounding every bit like an esteemed naval officer – or maybe a high school girl put in charge of commanding a naval vessel in one of the many shows about cute girls doing unusual activities, which Seika liked to watch.

  While their ship was maneuvering portside (or to the left in non-nautical terms), Minerva summoned her cane to her side and summoned protective magical circles on their ship’s starboard side. Most of the incoming cannonballs splashed into the water as their enemy was still gauging the distance, but a single cannonball smashed into the shield – it would have probably split the entire ship in half if it hit them.

  “Now! Return fire!” She instructed and Bellona obeyed her ‘captain’. She instinctively knew these cannons like the back of her hand and made finer adjustments to the firing angle before she ignited them all at the same time with her magical control.

  The tour boat rocked as four shots totaling 65 kilograms in weight were explosively launched from its aft platform. Bellona could hear a creak as the ship was forced to withstand forces it was never built for.

  All four of her shots were dead-on, sending splinters of wood into the ocean. She even saw a few skeletons falling overboard.

  “Reload for the next volley!” Minerva barked like she was actually a pirate captain. Bellona was a little bit too stunned by her behavior to reply, so she was left with no choice but to do as her partner demanded. Summoning circles appeared inside the cannons’ barrels, loading them with powder and cannonballs.

  “Ahahaha, ye have a pair after all! Ye wenches dare challenge Cap’n Crossbone to a naval battle with that piss pot of a boat? We’ll send ye to the depths, keelhaul ye and after I’ll be crackin’ Jenny’s teacup at yer harbor!”

  The taunts came from the galleon – the captain was using a primitive form of megaphone to amplify his voice as another volley of cannonballs was fired – this time there were five that crashed against the magical barriers.

  “What is he saying?” Bellona shouted.

  “No clue! But I think it was something vulgar. Fire!”

  Bellona fired another volley. She saw hits landing below the water line and inside one of the gunports, tearing it wide open and causing both skeletons and a cannon to fall into the water.

  “And this is just the start!” Minerva now announced, using the ship’s own speaker systems.

  “Captain Minerva will bring you to heel, foul rogue!”

  What have I gotten myself into?

  The battle continued for half an hour longer. Volleys upon volleys were exchanged between the two ships of vastly different time periods, together with expletives – by now Bellona could see that a sizeable crowd was gathered in any place with a good view of the bay, turning their fight into a spectacle. There were a few helicopters above them, too.

  “Do you think the Celestial Sisters have gotten the tear under control yet?”

  She asked between shots of her cannons. Another creak could be heard, this time with a quiet crack.

  “Hopefully! Also, I have bad news, Bellona.”

  “What is it?”

  “The next shot is going to be our last one.” Minerva joined her on the aft deck and pointed towards the inner workings of the tour boat. The strain from the fixed cannons finally claimed the boat’s integrity and water was starting to fill the interior – There were multiple holes in the glass canopy as well from where cannonballs did manage to break through the magic barriers – luckily the force of their impact had been lessened enough to not crack the boat’s spine.

  “Great…” Bellona looked to the enemy ship, which wasn’t faring much better. It was riddled with holes and only half of its cannons were still operational. The foremast hung limp to the side, costing the vessel precious speed. ‘Captain Crossbone’ was still shouting insults at them in his weird pirate speech, but even he seemed tired out.

  Minerva grinned and patted Bellona’s shoulder.

  “Make the next shot count! Then get ready to board!”

  “Aye aye, cap- I mean, okay.”

  Minerva looked at her and let out a stifled laugh before she gave up on containing it and laughed her head off.

  “See, you’re getting into it after all!”

  ***

  Bellona aimed the cannons very carefully this time. She looked over each of them as she adjusted the angle and shot the galleon a scornful look before she stepped back. Stretching out her left hand she boomed in a commanding voice:

  “Fire!”

  Four explosions followed, and four massive projectiles were launched towards the galleon. The poor tour boat had enough at this point and a massive crack opened in its side, facilitating its accelerated sinking. One of the cannonballs hit the galleon’s deck and snapped the mizzenmast, another shot took out yet another gunport, the third and fourth went below the waterline where they obviously hit something. A flash of light appeared below the water and the ship was snapped in two as a massive explosion of the ship’s powder storage engulfed it, sending skeletons, cannons and chests of gold flying.

  Bellona could see the captain himself fly into the sky, being reduced to nothing by the flames. A specter left the skeleton’s body and shot right past the two Magical Girls in the direction of the tear in reality.

  “I’ll be back, ye hear me? I’ll send ye straight to the bottom of the ocean! I’ll make ye walk the plank and I’ll cleave ye to the brisket!”

  He continued cussing them out until he was completely out of earshot.

  Minerva and Bellona both took a deep breath, exchanging a look before they started laughing.

  “This was the dumbest incident yet!” said Bellona through tears of laughter.

  “This was the most fun I had so far!” Minerva agreed.

  The piece of boat they were standing on was slowly sinking into the water. Bellona recalled the cannons into her crystal and took a deep breath.

  “I’m really glad to be your partner, Minerva.” She said, turning towards her.

  “You’re crazy and sometimes you make me question my life choices with the plans you come up with, but all the same… I’m glad to be with you.”

  Minerva grinned, but then she cleared her throat.

  “Well. Here’s the truth from my side, then.” She stepped closer as their feet slowly got wet on the sinking half of a boat.

  “I’m glad to be your partner, too. And I want to meet you. The real you. I’ve been running away from my own emotions because I was afraid for everyone around me, but you are strong. I feel like things could work out between us.”

  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

  “In short: I love you, Bellona. And I want to love the real you, as well.”

  Bellona’s heart started beating faster from that confession – and faster still as Minerva took both her cheeks in her hands and moved in for a first kiss.

  ***

  Their lips never met. Onlookers would later report that they just saw the two Magical Girls on the wreckage suddenly disappear.

  Bellona found herself in an unfamiliar place. White lilies surrounded her, their petals having a rainbow sheen to them while images played on them – like millions of different movies were played at once on the smallest screens possible.

  She held her trusty halberd at the ready, slowly walking through the strange environment.

  I was so close… whoever interrupted us will pay!

  “For now, focus! We don’t know what this enemy is capable of.”

  She could hear the sound of a struggle, so she ran quickly to see what was happening. Further into the field of lilies she saw Minerva fighting what looked like an endless mass of thorned vines. She looked panicked – scared, even, like after all the things she’d seen in her life as a Magical Girl, this was the one thing she was truly terrified of.

  “Minerva!” Bellona shouted, summoning more blades to her side. The two swords started to spin around her body as she plunged into the mass of vines, hacking them to pieces.

  “No! Run, Bellona!” the other Magical Girl pleaded.

  “Don’t let her get you! Leave me and find an exit!” Her voice cracked like she was about to cry. That momentary lapse of focus was all it took for the vines to overwhelm her – she was caught and restrained and a vine mercilessly struck through her chest, ‘killing’ her current transformation. As it pulled out, Minerva was forced to let go and return to her mundane form, Seika Hitoishi.

  “Bastards!” Bellona cried out as she hacked at the vines, trying to reach Hitoishi, but the vines formed a barrier around the captured woman. Bellona could only do so much to prevent herself from being captured.

  The vines kept coming like a ceaseless tide and Bellona summoned more blades to spin around her body as it seemed that the vines might still break through.

  Finally, she saw a person. A woman was next to Hitoishi, with sickly green skin. Bellona’s eyes went wide as she recognized her as the weirdo she encountered shortly before Hitoishi became distant.

  “Get away from her!” Bellona screamed at the top of her lungs as Hitoishi opened her eyes and gave her a bitter smile.

  “I really messed up. I’m so sorry, Bellona.”

  Bellona inched closer and closer, hacking the vines away, desperately trying to reach Hitoishi but stopped abruptly.

  “Not a step closer, dear.” The sickly-sweet voice of the stranger rang out, as she held knife-like crimson nails to Hitoishi’s throat.

  “I came to eat her memories of you, but I’ll gladly eat yours instead after I cut her open. But that wouldn’t be dramatic enough.”

  Bellona hesitated – enough to get caught herself. Vines wrapped around her limbs and restricted her movement while cutting open her exposed skin. A pained yelp escaped her as all the other vines withdrew, leaving only those holding Bellona and Hitoishi to face each other.

  “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” Hitoishi kept pleading, with tears streaming down her face.

  “I got you involved because I couldn’t control my feelings! I got arrogant! I thought we could face her! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”

  Hearing her beloved cry and plead like that broke Bellona’s heart – she tried to speak calming words to her, but a smooth vine closed around her throat and choked the words right out of her.

  The wounds from the vines caused her blood to collect on one of her fingers and as a single drop fell to the ground, all the white lilies in the field turned a deep crimson.

  Hitoishi’s chest emitted a golden glow as she screamed in pain and a single, golden fruit emerged. Rage built in Bellona, and she struggled against the constricting plants, though it only ended in her driving the thorns deeper into her flesh.

  The green woman stepped over and plucked the fruit out of the air.

  “I am Lethe. You may not remember me, but I’ve been watching you with some interest.” She turned the fruit in her hand, admiring it.

  “Very clever of you to only ever approach her as Bellona, and never revealing that you are Miori.”

  The blood froze in Bellona’s veins as the monster addressed her by her real name.

  How?!

  “This way this fruit only contains the memories of her time with Bellona, not with Miori, even though I’ve been using your blood. There was never any connection between your two identities for her to connect the pieces.”

  The monster shrugged and simply bit into the fruit, devouring the memories contained within.

  Bellona instinctively understood what was going on and tried to reach her – to strike at her, anything! But she was held tightly by the vines.

  Hitoishi was unconscious, hanging in the vines like a discarded doll – seeing her like this drove tears into Bellona’s eyes.

  “However, you are one terrifying opponent.” Lethe admitted, putting the last piece of the fruit into Hitoishi’s mouth.

  “If I allow you to grow a proper bond with that war goddess you’re fused with any longer… oh, I might actually get into trouble! So…”

  Her hand with its long, claw-like nails approached Bellona’s face.

  “Miori! Withdraw! Give me full control!”

  What?

  “There’s no time! I’ll do it myself!”

  Miori felt herself being forcefully ripped out of control of her Magical Girl body. The image of Lethe reaching for her face faded as she was being plunged into the dark abyss of her mind’s recesses.

  She saw nothing, heard nothing, felt nothing. With that, she drifted out of consciousness.

  “Someone! Call an ambulance!”

  “Is she dead? She isn’t moving at all!”

  Miori opened her eyes, causing all the bystanders to take a step back. She felt something burning in her chest, coughing and sputtering until she finally turned to the side and expelled the sea water from her lungs – and her stomach, while she was at it.

  She remained like that for a while longer until her irritated eyes stopped seeing everything as a blur, then she looked around.

  She was on a sandy beach. In front of her was the water – to her back were trees. To her left she could see the cranes of Tokyo’s commercial port and to her right she saw Haneda Airport’s control tower.

  She took a few more breaths before she looked around and asked.

  “I’m sorry. Where am I?”

  “It’s so good that you woke up! How are you feeling? You’re on Tsubasa Beach. Right by Jonanjima Seaside Park. Can you stand?”

  Her head was all fuzzy, but she managed to stand. Her gothic lolita dress was ruined. It was torn in various places and was utterly soaked with seawater, with sand sticking to various places. The wet petticoat alone must have added considerably to her weight.

  “Do you need a ride home?” Some others asked.

  “At least let a doctor look at you.”

  Miori ignored all of them. She needed to figure out what happened.

  She ran into the park and looked at the ring on her finger.

  “Transform!” She hushed and changed her form to Bellona Azure.

  That’s when the trouble began.

  “Who are you?! How did you get your hands on me?”

  What is going on with you? It’s me! Miori!

  “Out of my body!”

  Bellona’s body fought Miori’s spirit inside her – she grimaced and twisted as the two souls fought for dominance.

  I don’t want to suppress you! Just listen to me!

  “No! I will only listen to the one who my mother entrusts me to!”

  Juno DID give you to me! Did Lethe erase those memories from you?!

  The struggle stopped for a moment – the crystal contemplated her words.

  “Erased memories?”

  ***

  It took some more convincing to get Bellona to agree to let Miori use her body. She demonstrated her familiarity and her proficiency in using it as proof of their previous bond, though Bellona proper remained skeptical. She simply called Miori ‘human’ instead of her name, even after a reintroduction. Lethe had dealt a heavy blow to them.

  She reached home and transformed back, storming into her room and starting her PC, opening a video platform.

  She frantically entered a name into the search bar.

  ‘Bellona Azure’

  There were no results.

  She opened a video from an incident where she assisted Minerva Crimson in fighting the marionettes. She remembered it well; it was one of the better-quality records of their exploits together.

  It was a blurry mess – corrupted in a way that only ever showed Minerva Crimson and hid all evidence of Bellona’s presence.

  She leaned back in her seat and gritted her teeth as tears started streaming down her face.

  I have been erased from Senpai’s memories. Just like she was erased from Ayame’s.

  ***

  She found out later that Hitoishi was unharmed, aside from her erased memories. She decided to keep her distance from her as the Magical Girl Bellona Azure for the time being.

  Miyu and Momo were still in contact with Miori, but when they called Hitoishi on her personal phone she had no idea who they were and blocked them. They never interacted with Minerva Crimson on her own before, so all of Hitoishi’s memories with them were linked to Bellona. Miori withdrew more and more from her last two allies, focusing entirely on trying to track down Lethe, to the dismay of Bellona, whose instructions she ignored.

  August 2024

  ***

  Miori woke up from her dreams about her past. A single tear rolled down her cheek as she got up. She followed her usual ritual – she checked the book full of things she was supposed to remember and confirmed one by one that nothing in there was new information to her.

  She checked her diary as well, confirming that she wrote an entry yesterday.

  It detailed how she stumbled over the Celestial Sisters going shopping with Hitoishi and how she went on a little date with her after.

  It also detailed how she couldn’t hold back and gave her Senpai a kiss on the cheek.

  I’m a mess… I shouldn’t be doing things like that until I know how to properly kill Lethe.

  “Your love is strong, hu- Miori. The fact that you can’t contain it despite the dangers is proof enough. I don’t blame you.”

  She felt a gentle warmth spread through her core at the affirmation from her gemstone and smiled a little.

  “Well. Let’s get out there and practice. I want to be able to use ‘Realm of Duels’ as fast as possible so we can get rid of her.”

  “Lead the way, then.”