Yuri. A nice, cheerful, ordinary schoolgirl. Some might dispute this, but 
compared to her classmates she was perfectly ordinary and very nice indeed. As for 
cheerful, no less than two of her classmates were contemplating suicide.

	Ki slowly emptied his desk, feeling every glance from his classmates who 
were, in fact, pointedly not looking at him. Staring at a trained killer who was, 
apparently, going insane is not generally a prudent course of action. According to the 
rumour mill he was being transferred out and committed to an asylum by his family. 
Nobody wanted to know why.

	He sat, staring at his desk, his mind whirling, his usual expressionless mask 
twitching as untamed emotions pushed through the remnants of his self-control. He 
sampled them like a three year old faced with an unfamiliar vegetable. He found that 
he was going to miss the school, miss the now familiar hallways, miss his friends 
(even now he wondered at the strange concept of friendship), miss . . .

	"To the bottom-most pits of every hell with that!" he muttered out loud. He 
wasn't going to be a failure, wasn't going to spend the rest of his life in exile, wasn't 
going to be cast out of the family as trash. He was going to redeem himself! He would 
prove his family wrong!! He was going to return in triumph!!! He embraced the 
emotions flowing through him. He had lost his centre, but now he found a new one, 
filling his heart with the fire of anger and the light of hope. All he needed was a 
plan . . .

	He looked up and smiled like a wolf. Then spotted Yuri, who was approaching 
him with an expression of concern on her face, only to check at his expression. His 
smile relaxed into a friendly grin and he walked to meet her with his old swagger.


	.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .


	Ryuji was somewhat less depressed. He was just wishing he'd never been 
born. He had discovered that cybernetics designed to stop the natural decay of a 
corpse were no good at stopping the unnatural decay caused by the presence of a 
Merkla demon (or were just unreliable, but Liza would never admit to that). He had 
discovered that the conversation of the average magical girl would drive the typical 
transdimensional horror insane. However, worst of all, he had discovered that he had a 
test on threats and intimidation that day and he hadn't prepared.

	"Shut up and let me concentrate." he thought hard at the undead Lily who was 
telling him about the various romances she had witnessed at her school. She had been 
talking non-stop for three hours, without even pausing for breath once and hadn't yet got
to the second day of term. She didn't need to breath anymore, of course, but it was
the principle of the thing. It wasn't as though any of it was even relevant to seducing a 
succubus. 

	"Umm  . . . OK, I need to think. A quick question, though. First impressions 
are very important, so for your first date . . ."

	"We already went to the school dance together."

	Lily smiled. "That's great! So what happened, Ryuji-kun?"

	"I started decaying and dropped my jawbone down her cleavage."

	" . . . . ."

	Ryuji bent over his textbook. "Surrender or I will strangle you with your own 
intestines. You have a pretty face, it'll look good on my wall. . . ."

	Five minutes later he sat back, satisfied. He shouldn't have worried. He had a 
stock of blood curding threats. He was an unearthly paradimensional horror beyond 
human comprehension. He was an eight foot tall, goat headed cyborg zombie that was 
decaying gruesomely (Just so long as it held together until the test). He had charm, 
wit and style. He had a magical girl trying to hide behind him . . . . Huh?

	"What's going on?" he growled.

	Lily was staring at Yuri like a frog at a snake. "Ryuji-kun, she's scary."


	.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .


	Craig walked slowly down the hallway to the dining hall. He was depressed. 
There was a lot of that going around. Watching Ki and Balabalalde glare at each other 
while Yuri wasn't watching reminded him about his own love life which was dead. 
Dead, buried with a stake through its heart and its head cut off, at a crossroads, with 
its mouth full of salt, in a coffin wrapped with holy wards . . .

	When you go to Dark Heart High, you need to be specific.

	His out-of-control metaphor was interrupted by the last person he wanted to 
see. While an angry Yuri was surprisingly dangerous to be around, an unwrapped 
Balabalalde incredibly lethal and Principal Amakusa truly scary, Liza was even more 
of a menace. Not by herself of course. In his experience, she could lead to all of the 
above.

	"Hmm. Judging from the way you were glancing at the female students, you 
love life must be bothering you! For only 50,000 yen, I have just the thing. It`ll allow 
you to get your hands on any girl's body you want. . ."

	"NO! NO! A Thousand NOs! I am not buying any more of your misbegotten 
inventions. The last one was enough. Forget it!"

	"Don't be like that. Have I told you about my new money-back guarantee? If 
my device results in the unintended death or maiming of a student, I'll give you your 
money back, OK? I'll need proof of course . . ."

	"NO!"

	"Twice your money back . . .?"


	.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .


	Liza grinned. At Dark Heart High, there wasn't much demand for a device 
which couldn't hurt anyone, no matter how hard you tried. She'd been trying to 
offload that piece of junk on some schmuck for months.


	.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .


	Craig sat in afternoon class and groaned, looking at the large, boxy rifle on
his desk. The only person around who was more depressed was Ryuji who had got 
nervous for some reason and botched his intimidating speech. He just knew that 
something was going to go hideously wrong and he was going to end up embarrassed 
and in detention. Despite what some teachers thought, he could learn.

	Yasuko sat in the chair next to him and ignored him. Then she spotted the gun 
and casually moved back so the barrel was no longer pointing at her.

	"And what have you got there? Don't tell me you've given up on swords."

	This was just getting better and better. "It's a duplicator gun. Shoot it at 
someone and it creates an exact physical copy. At least that's what Liza said. Lucifer 
alone knows what it really does."

	"So what are you planning to do with it?"

	"Umm . . . Shoot someone, grab the duplicate and torture it for useful 
information." At Yasuko's interested expression, he went on "with whips and candle wax
and clamps and . . . .".

	Craig was off in his own little fantasy world. Yasuko looked at him and rolled
her eyes. One of the perks of being a succubus was the ability to sense certain emotions.
If he didn't wear armour all the time and wasn't such a complete loser, Craig would be
fairly cute. That's why she failed to notice Yuri walking towards them, until she
tripped.

	A beam of light shot out and hit Sondack the Widowmaker who was cleaning 
his glasses. A moment later a second beam of light came out the side of the gun and a 
naked male form appeared . . . and promptly collapsed in a heap.

	Craig, Yuri and Yasuko found themselves the centre of attention . . . again . . . 
as usual. Sondack walked over and looked at them. "If you were trying to kill me, that 
failed miserably, you pathetic losers. I want an explanation or your heads to hang on 
my wall, or both." He looked down at the still form on the ground and turned it over 
with his foot.

	His own face stared up at him with glazed and empty eyes. After a speechless 
pause, he grabbed the gun and shot Craig Maimsworth with it. A second naked form 
fell to the ground. This one had blonde hair.

	Craig shuddered. He looked at the very familiar body in front of him with his 
own dead face on it. Yasuko had the presence of mind to claim the gun and looked at 
the bodies. "No soul." she whispered.

	"Huh?" Recent events had passed too quickly for Craig to keep up.

	"There's a physical duplicate, but no soul or life-force, just meat." Yasuko was 
happy to show off while studying the naked bodies. For once, something she knew 
about, souls. Then she looked coyly up at Sondack. "So, big boy, do you have plans 
for the evening?"

	"As opposed to being fed upon by a pathetic succubus?" Sondack stalked 
away.

	"Empty shells . . . Liza forgot to mention that." Craig looked at the useless
device in disgust.

	By this point Yuri had stopped rubbing her head and was paying attention to
what was going on. Some of her friends (and people who pretended to be her friends 
for various reasons) drifted over. Even Lily "Lightning" Ringoshima joined them, not 
that she had much choice, being rather attached to Ryuji. Ryuji looked down and 
clapped his hands together in glee. One fell off. He then collapsed and a moment later 
Craig's dead twin jerked to life.

	"Hey, this is great, and really fresh too."

	Craig looked at him in shock. "Excuse me, that's me you're in." He blinked, 
trying to make sense of what he just said. He blanched "At least put on some clothes." 
Yuri was hiding her red face while Amy hovered over her.

	Ryuji looked at the duplicator gun with an expression of naked desire on 
Craig's face. "Give me that or . . . umm . . . I will rip your soul from your body and 
send it shrieking and naked into the endless void!"

	Craig, the original one, grabbed the gun from Yasuko, accidentally triggering 
it. Yuri's corpse joined Sondack's on the floor. In a rather compromising position. 
"This cost me a lot of money, you know."

	Balabalalde looked down expressionlessly for a moment, then kicked 
Sondack's body away, crushing his rib cage in the process. 

	"Hey, be careful with that thing," Yuri was rather shocked. This was getting 
out of hand and she didn't want to have to explain the corpse to her parents.

	Ryuji stared at the gun. "Gimme."

	Craig thought fast for once. "100,000 yen!"

	"Done!" Ryuji pulled his wallet from his trousers, fumbling with one of the 
corpses on the floor. He looked over at Yuri's dead body. "Did you want this?"

	Yuri smiled at her friend. "Well, I was kinda wondering what to do with it. 
You can have it, I guess."

	Ryuji had just finished pulling yen from his rather smelly wallet. He then 
carefully placed a small pile of notes on the floor. He stepped back.

	Craig carefully lowered the gun to the ground and then kicked it over towards 
Ryuji, with predictable results. He didn't notice, too busy grabbing his money. 

	Yasuko looked at her naked, twitching duplicate, then her eyes widened. What 
was going on? The other bodies hadn't . . .

	"Huh? Ryuji-kun, what's going on?" Then Yasuko's twin spotted Yuri and 
Amy, leapt to her feet and glared at them. "You Dark Hearted scum think you can 
defeat justice! However love and justice can survive even death and now I will punish 
you!"

	A magical girl pose by a thirteen year old girl had one effect. The same pose 
by a naked succubus had a rather different effect (There are those who would dispute 
this, but I don`t know anyone like that. Honest). Craig collapsed, his nose streaming 
blood. He wasn't the only one.

	Amy stepped back in shock then stared at Ryuji. Then her eyes narrowed as 
she gazed at Yasuko's twin. "It's Lily. Her ghost must have got caught in the 
duplicate."

	Lily raised her hands. She didn't know what had happened but she wasn't 
going to miss out a god given chance for vengeance. Then she paused. They weren't 
her hands. She gasped. Then heard something rustle behind her. She whirled and 
caught sight of a bat like wing as someone tried to duck behind her again. She grabbed 
the wing and heaved. Not surprisingly she fell over.

	The small crowd around her watched blankly as she hit her head and knocked 
herself silly(er).

	Ryuji carefully pointed the duplicator gun at an empty part of the floor as 
everyone stepped away from him.

	Amy thought for a moment then grinned. "Just a sec, I'll go get Mistypuff and 
fix this." She turned, to find herself face to chest with someone.

	Kurosawa-sensei glared down at the group. "I'm sure there is going to be a 
good explanation for you lot disrupting my class. In fact, I'll give you an entire 
detention to think it up." She looked at the bodies scattered around and the gun 
Ryuji was holding. She reached down and flicked a switch on it. "Safety catch."


	.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .


	The detention room was empty apart from the small group of friends and not 
quite friends. If they were really lucky, no staff would actually bother to check they 
were properly punished. Yuri wondered why everyone was edging closer to her.

	"So, what do we do with her?"

	"We could kill her again."

	Yasuko grinned. "I can think of much more . . . fun things to do." She looked 
over at her unconscious twin.

	Yuri blushed. "Shouldn't we get her some clothes?"

	"I've got some of my normal clothes she could wear, but it seems such a 
waste."

	"We could send her back to Sakura Art. After all, they stopped trying to kill 
me."

	Everyone looked at the unconscious succubus, possessed by the spirit of a 
magical girl.

	"You're truly naive. That's why you will always be beneath my contempt. As a 
succubus, she will have to feed." Yasuko paused. "But I'm sure her friends would be 
happy to help her." She grinned.

	The group fell silent as the magical girl/succubus groaned and started to stir.

	Lily came to and found her face to face with the face of a demonic monster 
bent on devouring her. Actually the face and expression would not have been out of 
place on one of her friends at Sakura Art, but Lily knew that only proved how 
diabolically cunning this Yuri creature was. She braced herself for the vile speech of a 
true megalomaniac.

	"Umm, hi there. Are you ok?"

	"No matter how many times you kill me I shall return! Evil can never stand up 
to the power of Good! Face Justice Vile Creature!"

	Yuri paused. "I guess that means yes. Why are you so mad anyway? It's not 
my fault if you can't escape from a death-trap. . . . Which I . . umm . . . put you in. 
Guess it was my fault after all. Gomen." She put her hand behind her head and smiled 
weakly, then perked up. "But you're better now, so that's OK!"

	Lily looked around, only to see this diabolical mastermind's evil minions. The 
treacherous Amy Angeleye, who was having a fit of the giggles. A vile succubus, who 
was dressed in jeans and a tank top and apparently daydreaming. The horrific 
Balabalalde, who was sitting there impassively while a seven year old girl sat on his 
knee eating marshmallows. A black armoured killer, propped unconscious in the 
corner. A handsome dark haired young man who stood back and watched, with a 
thoughtful expression. Ryuji-kun. What were they doing is such a den of villainy? Her 
train of though was interrupted when Amy handed her a mirror.

	Ki stared at the unconscious heroine. "Does she do anything else except knock 
herself out, spout cliches and faint? This is boring."

	"She always got top marks in introductory heroic speeches. Of course, her 
mum did teach it."

	Yasuko grinned. "I know how to wake her up. You pinch her in just the right 
place." She demonstrated.

	"Most people would have slapped her face."

	The succubus ignored him as she licked her fingers clean. Lily groaned as she 
came around. She glared at her captors.

	"You may think you can abuse me all you like, but I have friends. They will 
avenge me."

	"You're telling me? I wasn't able to buy an ice-cream without someone trying 
to kill me for three days!"

	"Hey, we can't just let her go! What about the honour of the school?"

	Ki grinned. He'd thought of something. "Remember Kurosawa-sensei's 
lessons about villainous uses of mercy? This is exactly that situation." He turned 
towards the puzzled Lily. "We'll let you go and even give you back your hairpiece, 
but you'll owe each of us a favour. You won't have to hurt an innocent or turn against 
your friends, but apart from that . . ."

	Ryuji nodded. "It'll get her off the school grounds." Peace at last.

	Lily thought hard. She'd been taught that an oath taken under duress wasn't 
binding. A whole week's lessons had been devoted to it, mostly taken up with 
explaining what "duress" meant. There were oaths no magical girl could break, but no 
servant of evil would consider using them. She nodded.

	Yuri grinned and held out her hand. "Pinkie promise." Lily's face fell. She 
reluctantly extended her arm, trapped.


	.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .


	Violet Ringoshima sighed. For some reason, she was reminded of her 
daughter. She shook her head, she didn't need distractions.

	Sakura nodded. "This looks promising . . . `When light and darkness meet and 
become one, a great mistress will arise . . .' We can't be sure of the translation
though . . ."


	.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .


	"But that is Lily in there. My psychic powers cannot be mislead!"

	"She has been corrupted into a being of evil and must be destroyed!"

	"No. She isn't evil. We must free her soul from it's unnatural bondage to a 
creature of evil! That's why we must kill her."

	"No. We cannot harm an innocent!"

	"Maybe we could hold a vote on it?"

	"I'm a princess. This isn't a democracy."

	"But I'm a princess too!"

	Lily sat limply, hugging herself in the embarrassing (even for a magical girl) 
clothing her evil twin had lent her. Was her nightmare ever going to end?



---------------------------------------------------------

	I felt sorry for Lily. Sue me. So I decided to complicate her life even more. Sue 
me again. If you want to get rid of the duplicator gun, just remember where it came 
from. You could also have it overload from trying to duplicate Balabalalde.
	Thank you to Nick Callahan for pre-reading.

---------------------------------------------------------


	Craig was fairly content for once. He had made a fool of himself and had been 
sent to detention, but he had made a profit and so come out ahead. He even smiled at 
Liza as she passed. Then paused, his smile draining away as she grinned and 
approached him.

	"You know that money back guarantee if anyone was accidentally killed? 
Well, I figure that since you accidentally brought someone back to life, YOU owe 
ME."

	"Oh Dragonturds."