Amy stared at the pendant in her hand. Time around her seemed almost... suspended, as if by attempting the transformation to magical girl she had placed herself out of its flow instead. She could feel her devotion to Yuri pushing against the "evil" instilled into her by her short time at Dark Heart. She had to protect Yuri...not only from the monster, but from whoever Yuri might choose over her after seeing how nonexistent her powers had become. She looked up from her meditations to see Melvin... leaving... and Yuri waving a sword. Her face registered confusion and she turned her head to Yuri, who was checking to make sure Craig was all right after nearly being crushed by the mighty, if weakened, tentacles of Melvin Mikagami. She was overcome with a feeling of jealousy, as she always was when Yuri's attentions were focused on another, and went over the night's events in her mind. She hadn't gotten a chance to even hint about her love to Yuri, and here Yuri was rescuing a possible competitor following Amy's failed attempt to rescue *her*. Yuri hadn't even shown a hint of anything other than friendship for Amy, which saddened her a bit. Perhaps...when Yuri said she liked three boys...the third was Craig? No, this did not even bear thinking about. Yuri *had* to feel the same way about her, didn't she? After all, Yuri couldn't be blind to all the adoration Amy held for her. ********************** "Sir?" Akurei fidgeted, pulling on his snout nervously, facing the black armchair in the back of the room. There was a moment of silence. Then, the armchair began to swivel around, slowly, almost evilly, every movement trailing malevolence. The room was already dark, but the air around the armchair seemed to be even darker, if such a thing was possible. In the armchair President Amakusa sat, wearing a sharply-tailored business suit, whistling innocuously and petting a white thing that... might have been a cat, once. "Yes?" Amakusa said blandly. "He's back, sir." Akurei grimaced, insomuch as a hulking beast can grimace. It was a rather painful process. The rows of teeth kept on getting in the way, for one. "Who?" Amakusa asked, a small smirk crossing his face. Smirks, on the other hand, were far less painful and much more socially acceptable at Dark Heart High. "Mikagami, sir. The other one." The smirk vanished. ********************* "WAKE UP, GIRLY BOY!" A cold, murky liquid splashed Craig in the face. He sputtered and attempted to sit up. To his horror, he realized that he couldn 't move. His body, which until this point had always been obedient to him, had suddenly chosen to ignore him in some fit of rebellion. Craig could find this a little understandable; after all, it had been abused quite a bit recently under his care. But it wasn't as if he had been doing the abusing. Craig tried to sit up again, cautiously. Nothing. It was as if a heavy weight had been placed upon his chest, making him unable to budge. Upon a moment 's reflection, Craig realized two things: one, that there was a heavy weight upon his chest, and two, that it was currently doing pushups. "Can't... breathe..." he managed to gasp out, eyeing Muscle Woman Sybil through the reignited pain in his ribs. "SHE SAYS YOU WERE KNOCKED OUT, BOY! I'VE GOT TO HELP YOU GET MORE STAMINA! WHY, WHEN I WAS YOUR AGE I TOOK OUT TEN FIRE-BREATHING MANTICORES WITH MY BARE HANDS! AND LOOK AT ME NOW! HUA-" *sneeze* "-oh my!" Old Lady Sybil said, collapsing face-first onto his chest. She scrabbled desperately for balance, teetered for a moment, then fell sideways onto the floor. Everyone stared at her for a moment. "Peasant." Yasuko sneered. "Everyone knows that manticores don't breathe fire." Craig thought for a minute. Thoughts never came easily to him. They came slowly, taking their time at surfacing. So it took Craig a minute to connect the pain in his ribs to the memories of the battle to the monster who had been responsible. The monster who... "HE KILLED MY FATHER!" Craig roared at random, causing poor Old Lady Sybil, who had pulled herself up and regained that gently-swaying balance that all spindly old people seem to possess, to give a startled gasp and fell back down to the floor. "Gomen gomen gomen gomen gomen!" Yuri babbled, brushing the glaring Yasuko aside. "You were hurt and everything and I couldn't help and I wanted to get help and I remembered when I was sick she fixed me but I didn't think there'd be a REASON that Nurse Sybil was teaching at Dark Heart High and WAAAAAHHH I'm so so so so so sorry!" Yuri began to sob. "... Dragonturds." Craig muttered, twitching uncomfortably. "Well... I... guess... you... could... consider... it... payback... for... all... the... times... I... tried... to... kill you..." he said through gritted teeth. Damn her infernal tears. Why did they have such an effect on him? Yuri stopped crying almost immediately. "Reeeally?" she said eagerly, large eyes shining. "... No,"Craig admitted. "But it did make you feel better, didn't it?" *sneeze* "You's here for learning evil!" piped up the apparently-now-recovered Sybil from her diminutive height. "Betraying friends's evil, isn't it? Yay!" She clapped her hands delightedly. "But-" Sybil sneezed. "Ooooh, darling, don't you worry about it," Sybil purred, adjusting her nurse's outfit seductively. "You should hear some of the things I did in *my* high school days! For example..." She leaned over, displaying ample cleavage, and then began to whisper in Yuri's ear. After a moment, Yuri turned beet red. "Aaaagh!" she shrieked, and fled the room, Sybil in... hot... pursuit. Craig blinked. It would take another moment before his thoughts could surface on that one. Yasuko eyed the space where Sybil had been standing with a mixture of admiration and speculation. "I wonder if she gives... lessons... I could forgive her other forms." Yasuko made a thoughtful exit, ignoring Craig's belated double-take. Craig stared after the door. A few seconds later: "... Dragonturds! I forgot to get revenge on her for manipulating me!" Finding his body obedient again now that Sybil had left, Craig sat up, wincing. ************************************ After his third crash into the pavement, Ryuji was feeling rather discouraged. He tilted his head to the side, trying to ascertain his unusual legs without losing balance and falling over. The body had certainly LOOKED impressive, but at the moment it wasn 't doing much. "Do these things stop working when you're dead or something?" he mused. ************************************* "Perfect," a voice on the other end of the phone said. Even the bad reception couldn 't hide its evident glee. "Send me over fifty copies." Craig hung up the phone, feeling triumphant. Now Wareme would feel his revenge! ************************************* "Wareme." Yasuko jumped, startled. She turned, scowling, to see the familiar face of Craig. "Peasant! Don't sneak up behind me like that!" She looked down her nose at him spectacularly, which was an impressive feat, considering that he was much taller than she was. Instead of being cowed by her derisive glare, which was the usual response on his part, Craig seemed to take some courage from her obvious scorn. "Why did you invite me to Yuri's party?" he asked accusingly. Yasuko blinked, looking perplexed. "What?" "I know it was you. I heard your voice. I recognized it." Yasuko threw back her head to give an unconvincing Roaring Bitch Laugh. "OHOHOHO! Why would I bother to ask a low-life such as yourself?" "Wareme," he repeated again, obviously trying to seem suave and attractive and failing miserably. "I knew you were a slut... but this..." "What?" Yasuko asked, a sense of unease growing in her gut despite her best efforts. He couldn't possibly know about... that... could he? "You. And a magical girl. At an amusement park." He stared at her in disbelief. Yasuko 's eyes narrowed into slits. "Liar," she hissed. "I have pictures!" Against her will, Yasuko found the memories flooding back. *************************************** Yasuko flounced out of the house, derision painted across her face. _Those insufferable... peasants!_ she thought, so incensed that she was unable to come up with a suitable term for them. _How dare they? I was perfectly justified in eating that Joao Gilberto's soul! It was unsufferably plebeian. I don't care if it was a family heirloom, and I most certainly will not be grounded for something so ridiculous. Hmph. _ "...'scuse me? Are you evil?" piped a voice. Yasuko's eyes followed it to its source, a diminutive, morose-looking girl with her hair put up in in little ponytail-buns at random intervals all over her head.. "Of course," she said proudly. The girl perked up visibly. "Oh! Yay!" She then pulled out a strange, glowing... calculator? "Candy stars in happy light Justice senshi! Fight fight fight! Pretty sunshine! Mighty might! Glitter hearts are shining bright! "In the name of peace and happy shininess, I, Heavenly Marshmallow Princess Cherry Bomb, will punish you!" The traditional Dark Heart High teen 's response would be to strike the girl in the head with a mighty blow, break her neck, crush her lower spine, snap her one way, snap her the other, and finally take what had once been human and roll it into a ball and throw it down the nearest cliff. Yasuko... leered. The girl was exactly what Yasuko 's parents would never approve of, and there was something about her... maybe it was the tight, form-fitting fuku that managed to be obscene and cute all at the same time... something that screamed "soul to be consumed." "If you'd like to punish me, there's time for that later. But for now... wouldn't you rather do something... more interesting?" Yasuko purred, licking her lips suggestively. A moment's hesitation. Then: "NOOOOO!" Heavenly Marshmallow Princess Cherry Bomb screeched in horror and ran away. Yasuko blinked. Could it possibly have been something she'd said? ...no, and it obviously wasn't her appeal... "But perhaps a change of clothing is in order," she said aloud. ************************ Yasuko strutted into the ice-cream store, showing off her new camouflage bikini to best advantage. "NOOOOO!" Heavenly Marshmallow Princess Cherry Bomb screeched in horror and ran from the room. ************************ Yasuko strutted into the drugstore, showing off her new skimpy tank-top-and-short-shorts ensemble. "NOOOOO!" Heavenly Marshmallow Princess Cherry Bomb screeched in horror and ran from the room. ************************ Yasuko crept cautiously into the toy store, showing off her modest pair of blue jeans and loosely-fitting T-shirt. There was a pause. Then: "NOOOOO!" Heavenly Marshmallow Princess Cherry Bomb screeched in horror and ran from the room. Yasuko gritted her teeth. ************************ Several days later, Yasuko trudged up the path to Heavenly Marshmallow Princess Cherry Bomb's house, fear and loathing in her every step. She was wearing a frumpy, frilly pink dress that, while fitting her figure perfectly, also covered her entire body up to her neck and down to her ankles. The magical girl eyed her, and finally, her eyes lit up. "Ooh! Pretty! Wai! Let's go to the amusement park together!" She grabbed Yasuko by the arm and bounded along the street at a high velocity. "Wait!" Yasuko yelped, feeling distinctly uncomfortable. "Ye-es?" The girl paused in mid-bound and midair, much to the fright of random passerby. "...name," Yasuko managed to gasp out. "SHHH!" The girl looked wildly from side to side, as if expecting a pink-fukud magical girl to berate her for such a question. "Magical girls aren't supposed to have names." She dropped her voice to a whisper. "But I'm Andrea." She smiled. "Now, let's go to the amusement park!" *************************** "Yasuko darling?" Yasuko cringed. "What is it, Mother?" Mr. Wareme answered her. "Thy parents have discovered the torrid affair between thee and Andrea, the pig-tailed harlot from Sakura Arts!" Yasuko widened her eyes in false astonishment. "Was she really from Sakura Arts?" Yasuko asked, innocence almost dripping from her words. "... Oh." Her parents blinked at her. Mrs. Wareme cleared her throat. "Well, I'm afraid that Andrea just broke up. Rather painfully. You two won't be able to see each other again." Yasuko let out a roaring bitch laugh. "OHOHOHOHO! Do you peasants expect me to believe that someone who has had the great luck to obtain such pleasures of the flesh would so willingly give it up?" "Um, dear, no one ever said anything about... willingly." Mrs. Wareme twirled her hair around her horn nervously. Yasuko gazed at her parents levelly in the following silence. "I am correct in assuming that you meant that she 'broke up WITH me,' of course." More silence. Her parents were both able to look her in the eye, but that was because they were good at what they did. "Father, you didn't."Yasuko let a bit of a pout creep into her face. "... Well, er, to be honest, it was me." said her mother sheepishly. "MOTHER!" "I'm sorry! I was hungry!" "You ate my girlfriend! Peasant!" "GIRLFRIEND?" At this, Yasuko's father's eyes blazed. "Thou hast been influenced poorly by this girl. Listen to thyself! Thy speech is the speech of the gutter! Thou darest to speak of one newly corrupted as a... 'girlfriend?' Thy mother did well to dismember her." "Humph." Yasuko crossed her arms and settled for a full-blown pout. ************************************************** Yasuko stared in horror. It was a photograph of her, in that ghastly frilly pink number, at the amusement park, with her arms around Heavenly Marshmallow Princess Cherry Bomb. Yasuko peered more closely at the picture. _Sweet Satan! _ she thought in horror. _ My eyes are actually *SPARKLING.* _ Yasuko 's eyes travelled from the photograph to Craig's triumphant smile and back to the photograph again. The humiliation that this photo would cause...not even with the frilly pink number and the girl at her arm, her parents would disown her for the sparkling eyes alone... Yasuko dropped her impassive front in a second and lost control completely. "GIVE ME THAT PHOTOGRAPH!" she screamed, lunging desperately for the scrap of paper dangling from Craig's hand. "Never!" Craig cackled, easily sidestepping her. Yasuko forced herself to revert back to her calm state. Think logically, her teachers had always instructed her. Ascertain the situation coolly and calmly. No use losing your temper in the heat of battle. Now. How could she make Craig give it back? Well, he was a man, first and foremost. And if there was one thing that Yasuko had learned in her experience, it was that men could be very easily manipulated. Humans can only think with one organ, her mother had once told her. Women think with the organ located in their heads. Men think with the organ located between their legs. Now Yasuko pursed her lips and took a step closer to Craig, gazing up at him from under very long lashes. "Why do you THINK I invited you to the party?" Yasuko asked slowly, wiggled an eyebrow suggestively at him. Craig, in his blessed innocence, answered: "To manipulate me, of course." "Guess again," she purred, slinking towards him predatorily, and was pleased to see him back up in fear. Inwardly, Yasuko smiled. _I've still got it._ "WHAT?" Carefully, Yasuko ran her finger up Craig's chest. As Craig turned bright red, Yasuko said, "I find you... fascinating," She leaned forward, pressing against him. While his eyes were riveted on her form, she reached over and furiously tore up the proferred picture. "I have negatives, you know." Craig said absently, still enjoying the view. "CURSES!" Yasuko shrieked. With a great amount of willpower she calmed herself. "My offer still stands. But don't humiliate me... I could never think well of someone who did that to me." Yasuko stomped off, feeling odd as she did so. A new feeling had come over her. It was one that she had never felt before, and so as a result found it hard to pin down. When she finally did, she was shocked. She felt the pangs of defeat. ************************************* Author's Notes: Well... that was messy. I signed up for my first ever segment of Improfanfic with a specific idea in mind. After thinking about it more and discussing it with my lovely prereader, Sharyna Tran, who never actually got to preread the chapter itself due to technical problems, I realized it wasn't such a good idea. So I made a completely new one. By this time, it was June 2, the original due date... so many thanks go also to Lawrence Chu for allowing this extension. The first part of the chapter may not seem to fit with the rest of it. Indeed, it doesn't, for two reasons. Firstly, it wasn't part of my idea at all... it was requested as setup for the next chapter. Secondly, given that it wasn't my idea, I had immense problems writing it, to the point where... I couldn't. I had someone else write that part. *twiddles her thumbs innocently* So, a shout out also to my good friend Wadika, who wrote the first segment of this story and helped me work out the idea for the story itself. And my friend Cyri-chan, for prereading the first half of the chapter, supplying half of Heavenly Marshmallow Princess Cherry Bomb's title, and providing half of her ditty. (Though I was incredibly tempted to use the Happy Healing Song.) And mounds of thanks go out to my friend Laura, my wonderful, perfect friend Laura, who helped me greatly to iron out the (fairly significant) problems with this chapter. As I said earlier... this was my first chapter at Improfanfic. I pray for flames. Honestly. I would like as much criticism as I could get, seeing as this is also my first attempt at fiction for quite a while and I'm rusty. So. My email address is elizabeth.greenberg@verizon.net -- please drop me a flame. ...that about covers it, I think. Thanks! And I really apologize. *waves sheepishly at all the readers* -Cenizas ******************************************* "...dragonturds," Craig said weakly.