“... And with that, I would like to introduce our newest Magical Girl, Better Devil. I hope you excuse the use of her cover name, but there are extenuating circumstances that make it difficult for her to reveal her identity.”

That was my cue to come on stage. With one last deep breath in and out, I nodded to the stagehand who gave me a thumbs up and smile as I stepped into the light. Not that I could actually tell what was lit up or not- but I just assumed that the stage was. Sure, I could have looked at the filaments and diodes that made up the lights, and from there extrapolate the areas bathed in light, but that was a lot of work.

As I came up to the middle of the stage, Kay and I gave each other a nod before I turned to face the crowd. I had already been watching their reactions with a larger, more relaxed field and got the impression that most people were surprised, but not shocked or appalled by how I was introduced. A few even made knowing or regretful faces as my mask came into full view.

In one ‘corner’ of my vision, I had a stream pulled up of someone watching the news coverage of this event. It would be a few minutes before the delay allowed me to know a snippet of the internet’s reaction as well, but I was expecting a lot of excitement. Or more than the usual metric fuck tons or excitement that any new MG elicited.

With my second to catch my breath over, I lightly rested my hands on the smooth surface of the podium that would normally be used for holding scripts- but with the wonders of technology I could have that floating in my vision along with a timer and the controls for my voice changer. That was set to slightly distort and lower the pitch of my voice so it was clear it wasn’t my real voice without sounding too fake. I could have just run the whole script through a text-to-speech program, but that would have ruined some of the fun of public speaking.

“Thank you all for having me,” I began. “Like Kay mentioned, I have some difficulties with my civilian life that make it impossible to reveal my identity just yet. Don’t worry, it's nothing sinister- just some loose ends that haven’t been smoothed out just yet. That might confuse some of you who are aware of the usual process for joining SEYA, but I was not afforded the luxury of a careful or informed contract.

“I contracted with my Semiseelie within the past week, and did so to survive a Breach that opened near me. I will not say more on that matter for the moment as that is the cause of one of my loose ends- and already threatens to dox me.” Taking a breath to add a subtle and low drone under my words, I continued, “it should not need repeating, while I expect that some people might be able to figure out who I am before I reveal it, I also expect them to keep it to themself. I value my privacy and expect that everyone also likes to not have abrupt interruptions in their life.”

After another breath to turn off the drone, I clapped once. “Now that that’s out of the way, I would like to continue giving my thanks to the wonderful people living and working here with me. All the staff I have met so far have been wonderfully professional and courteous- helping me find my way around and letting me explore on my own. I have also found the amenities to be more than sufficient and-” I cleared my throat for effect- “easily accessible.”

The agents I had interviewed with looked to be conflicted in whether they should be laughing or yelling. It might have been tipping my hand a little to continue, but when else would I have a chance to do this?

“Finally, I must congratulate the sysadmins for enforcing an easily browseable file structure. It may fall below many people’s notice, but I appreciate the work you do. Alright, with the self incrimination done, I will move onto preemptive question answering as I will be blanket declining all questions at this time.

“Why the horns and tail? I need them to see.

“What weapons or magic do I intend to focus on? Chemical.

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“What are my goals as an MG? Something, Something, kill demons?

“Cats or Dogs? Cats.”

Taking another breath, I moved onto my last act.

“Before I give up the stage to the next speaker, I would like to do a magic trick for those of you in the building. As I sweep my hand across you like this, please stick your hand into the pocket or bag containing your keys, ID, or whatever. Not yet, not yet- only do so when I point in your direction.” As I said this, I shook out my hands and wiggled my fingers- discreetly laying out the items I stole overhanging the edge of the podium slightly. Hovering my left hand over the podium and wiggling the fingers pretending to cast a spell, I started slowly sweeping my right hand over the crowd.

When I passed over the first of my victims, I used my tail to slap their ID where it overhung the ledge- flipping it into the air and feigning surprise. The audience immediately perked up and started getting restless with excitement, so I had to repeat, “not yet! Wait until I point to you or it’ll ruin the magic.”

As more of my victims passed over, I sent more cards and keys tumbling into the air at my face- dodging them with exaggerated head movements. When I made it all the way to where the ‘important’ people were sitting, I noticed they weren’t playing along. It took me saying, “come on, you too,” and some encouragement from the rest of the attendees for them to begrudgingly comply- at which point I sent all the two-factor tokens flying at once. I carefully caught as many as I could and placed them back on the podium, then finished off by saying, “once again, thank you all for your hospitality. I hope to get the chance to meet all of you.”

Before anyone could say anything, I slipped offstage and activated both [Unremarkable] and [Act]- blending back into the various helpers as I navigated my way to Kay’s team’s table. When I arrived, I took off my mask and deactivated [Act] before grabbing some of the snacks that were set out. Amusingly, the group was still enjoying the sight of my victims sorting out whose items belong to who- and I decided to not interrupt while I downed a few glasses of water and some nearly flavorless crackers.

When they eventually noticed I was back I got a round of congratulations and laughs for making the usual boring introduction much more exciting. Chris made the mistake of asking how I did my trick, so I got to ignore the rest of the speakers while quietly recounting my evening, slightly dramatizing some elements as needed.

Clearly trying their best as the team leader, Rebecca shot me a question when I was done talking; “have you tried using your stealth perks on something not human or intelligent? If they are able to affect stuff like birds or bugs they could be useful against the demons.”

After thinking back on the times I had perks running, I said, “I think that they do work on dumber creatures, although it’s context dependent. For demons specifically, if I was running around, they’d likely see me as a normal person- but if I was lying down and still they’d probably see me as just another body. Also ‘stealth’ feels like the wrong term… it's more like a disguise or enforced boringness.”

“Hmm… We should look into this regardless. Being able to extract civilians without fighting your way through waves of demons would be nice. Do you happen to have any extra experience to nudge yourself more towards proper stealth?”

“Nope,” I simply replied. “Used them all on stuff for chemical weapons.”

“Well, that's great too. Just be careful with those, I’d guess some of them can get pretty nasty- not the sort of thing to use when civilians or even other MGs are around. I’ll see about finding someone to help you practice with them.” Turning to the rest of the group, she asked, “anyone with wind magic or weather stuff around and available to teach? We can request smoke grenades to practice with.”

A little lost on how acquiring weapons worked, I tapped Kay on the shoulder and quietly asked, “so if I wanted say, tear-gas, where could I get it- or do I need to make it myself?”

Frowning and snapping, she replied, “I forgot to tell you about how that works. All you have to do is fill out a form and you can get almost anything. For example, I am able to request any munitions ranging from airsoft beads to artillery shells without much trouble.”

“What would you need artillery shells for?”

“Oh, one of my rifles is chambered in 150mm.”