"Right, I hereby call the third what-to-do-about-Decay meeting to order!" said Natasha, back in the twins' bedroom after school on the next day. "First point on the agenda: what the heck to do about Decay."

"Actually, I have another point I'd like to address first," said Mary. "My PTSD."

"Your what?"

Mary sighed. "I thought I was fine after our first fight, but recent events have proven otherwise. When faced directly by Decay, I not only found myself physically incapable of fighting, but I panicked and made poor tactical decisions."

"Well, I wasn't going to say anything, but letting him feed off you was kinda... gross."

"No, not that. Now that I'm calmer, with the benefit of hindsight, I still think that was the correct thing to do. If we hadn't replaced the energy he spent fighting us, who knows how many regular people he would have needed to drain last night? No, my error was calling for surrender too early. I should have called for retreat immediately. If the four of us had worked together to escape from the moment we knew our attack had failed, we might have got away, but I was so terrified that I didn't believe there was even the slightest possibility of escape. I can no longer be relied upon in combat situations, either physically or mentally."

"That's a bit... harsh."

"No, it isn't," sighed Tracy. "You saw her back at the construction site. The three of us were fighting, and she was just edging away, shaking, doing nothing except yelling at us to surrender."

"So, what can we do to help?" asked Stacy.

"Nothing. I need time, and probably a good therapist. Until then, we all need to acknowledge that for as long as Decay survives, my decision making in the heat of battle is going to be flawed. I'll need to rely on you."

"But you're the smart one!" complained Natasha. "You're the one that tells us what to do!"

"And now I can't. But I suspect that in the end, it doesn't matter that much. Any battle in which we end up facing Decay head-on is a battle we've already lost."

"Okay, fine. So, we can all agree right now that if we plot another assassination attempt and fail, we get the hell out of there immediately, and don't try to fight."

"Yes, that would be advisable. Don't forget that he wants to do the same to you as he did to me. His aim is to break our spirits sufficiently that we can no longer bring ourselves to resist him, but without ever physically harming us."

"I don't get how that works," complained Stacy. "What difference does it make if wounds are physical or mental?"

"Probably none. What makes the difference is that he acts in self defence, and that his responses are reasonable and proportionate. We tried to kill him, and have made it obvious that we intend to keep trying, so he is not only perfectly justified in taking action to stop us, but we've given him a significant amount of leeway in how he stops us. Since we're using assassination tactics, rather than engaging in fair fights, he can easily justify preventative measures as self defence."

"Okay, so what options do we have left?"

"The easiest option is to ignore him until he finds himself unable to feed off willing victims. Eventually, he'll build up enough of a reputation as a playboy, and have already drained so many people, that he'll be forced to start extracting energy by force. That should break his protection and let us fight him normally."

"And what if he decides to move out of the city once he runs out of easy targets here?" asked Tracy.

"Away from the rift, the number of people he'd need to drain each day to survive would increase to the point of infeasibility," answered William. "He'd either need to employ force, or to take so much energy from each person that he'd never be able to pass off the effects as one too many drinks. Even if he leaves, he'll swiftly end up losing his protection."

"That doesn't mean he won't do it," Tracy continued. "It's more work for him, yes, but it gets him away from us. We can't exactly chase after him."

"We'd have to..." said Stacy. "We couldn't just leave him alone, and the police couldn't stop him."

"Decay leaving the city is one of the worst scenarios I can imagine," said Mary. "But yes, you're right. Unlike other Banes, who needed to remain here to enlarge the rift, if he reaches the point at which he's forced to commit an evil act or starve, then he will very likely flee. Even if William can track him, as children, our ability to chase him will be limited. We need to deal with him before then."

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"Before we decide on what to do next, I think we need to find out what we've already done," said Tracy. "The way he reacted after feeding on Mary was very strange."

"He didn't appear to be in pain, and gave no indication that he considered it an attack. If anything, he looked shocked."

"Are you absolutely sure we haven't just accidentally given him magical girl powers?" asked Natasha.

"Yes, I am completely certain," answered William. "That's simply not a thing that is possible. Although, I'll note that it's getting pretty late, and he hasn't left his new home."

"He'd better not be feeding off Agatha!"

"I can't be sure, because he's been taking so little from each person that I might have missed him, but I don't think he's fed at all today."

"Maybe he isn't hungry? Perhaps his surprise was because he got far more energy than expected from Mary?" suggested Stacy.

"Or perhaps he really is sick, and now's our chance to take him out for good?" said Natasha.

"Perhaps we should call round and find out?" suggested Tracy.

Mary shuddered.

"You don't have to come," said Natasha kindly. "We're only going to look, and we're not going to attack him unless he's already dying, so you can wait here."

"Can you even transform?" asked Tracy.

"Uh... Yes, actually. I tested it before coming over here. I feel a little weaker than normal, but I can transform properly and you can't see my underwear through my dress."

"Hmm... If you've recovered that much in a single day, and if it's true that Decay got more than one day's worth of energy from you, maybe we can keep him fed on our own."

"Eww, don't say that," said Natasha. "I don't want to be mummified in his weird black shadows."

"You'd rather kiss him?" asked Stacy.

Natasha mimed throwing up.

Mary flashed a smile, but it soon faded. "I don't think he'd accept. He's too prideful to rely on us if he doesn't need to. Maybe once it gets harder to pick up girls at the bar, but until then, I can't imagine him agreeing. Also, we'd need to be really sure of the logistics. Not only that we're capable of keeping him fed, but also that at no point would all four of us be weakened to the extent that we couldn't fight back if he attacked."

"Why does that matter? He could kill us all right now if he wanted."

"I'm not sure he could. Once he kills one of us, his protection should break."

"He could still immobilise us so that we couldn't fight back, then kill us after."

"He'd likely find that his method of immobilisation ceased to be effective. We've fought Banes in the past who have used magic much like Decay's shadows to restrain us, and never failed to break out of it before."

"True. Well, shall we get going?"

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Three untransformed magical girls knocked on Agatha's door.

"Yes?" asked the elderly lady who opened the door, her eyes locking on Tracy. "Oh, you're that girl from a couple of days ago. Can I help you?"

"Actually, we were hoping to talk to your guest."

"Oh? You want Sebastian? Well, come on in, then. We were just playing a nice, quiet game of scrabble."

"Sebastian?" asked Natasha. "No, we..."

She stopped as Stacy whacked her over the head and mouthed, "Of course he's not calling himself 'Decay' in public," at her.

"Maybe we can join in?" suggested Tracy.

"W... What?!" exclaimed Natasha. "But I'm hopeless at scrabble!"

"Whatever do you three want?" asked Decay as they entered. "And where's the last one? Too scared to come?"

Natasha and Stacy glared, thoughts about scrabble forgotten.

"Yes," answered Tracy. "Congratulations, I suppose, Sebastian."

Decay sneered.

"Mind if I join in your game?"

The sneer vanished. "What? Why?"

"We mostly wanted to check what condition you were in after your rather odd recent meal. Since you seem to be perfectly fine, to the extent of taking the day off today, that job is done already, and it would be a shame to have made this entire trip just to leave in less than a minute."

"Whatever are you planning this time?" asked Decay, who was now frowning.

"Yeah, what are you planning? We never discussed this," said Stacy.

"If we were going to play board games, I'd have brought snacks," agreed Natasha.

"I don't know how you lot know each other, but it's nice to see Sebastian making friends," said Agatha. "Don't worry, I have plenty of snacks."

"We're not friends!" exclaimed Decay, Natasha and Stacy in perfect synchronisation.

Tracy just grinned.

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"You were gone a long time," said Mary, later in the evening. "I was getting worried."

"Tracy forced us to play scrabble, the big meanie," moaned Natasha.

"You're only bitter because you lost," laughed Stacy.

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh away. You only beat me by five points."

"What?" asked Mary, somewhat nonplussed.

"Tracy insisted on playing Agatha and Decay at scrabble," said William. "And no, I have no idea why either. All I do know is that I've been hiding in that backpack for far too long."

"I saw an opportunity, and I took it," said Tracy. "We had the chance to observe Decay for a long period, and confirmed he in no way seemed sick, nor hungry. We also befriended his landlady, which could be an advantage in the future, especially since she invited us to join in again another night. And, last but not least, it pissed Decay off."

"I'm not sure that last one was a great reason," said Mary.

"... And I'm not sure it's even true," added Stacy. "Yes, he was pissed to begin with, but once we started, he seemed more competitive than anything. At least with you. Me and Natasha couldn't keep up."

"Hmm..." said Tracy. "Now that you mention it, that is indeed a bit weird."

"Not half as weird as peacefully playing boardgames with someone we tried to kill yesterday, and have every intention of trying to kill again," said Natasha.

"Right, so shall we get onto what this meeting was supposed to be about?" asked Tracy. "How are we going to kill him?"