We actually asked the AI running the A.O.S. Sanctuary why it only selects girls to become Magical Girls. Penny Prime’s parents were wondering why their daughter got thrown into the fire like that, and we had to know. Everyone thought it was cultural - all Advent warriors are women, or male Advent have a religious role or something - but we were wrong. It turns out there’s a good reason for picking girls to fight and boys as Operators.
We don’t do dumb stuff as much as Magical Boys would!
Teenage boys always ignore instructions, throw themselves off cliffs, or dare each other to smell gross stuff. Their brains are too wired for high-risk activity. By the time they’re not, they’re adults, and adult bodies just reject Sanctuary’s mana organs. With nanite-based speed, strength, and magic that grows as a person’s body gets used to it, it doesn’t matter how strong or fast a candidate is, only how good of a soldier they’ll be. High-school girls often have the exact traits that make a good Advent soldier. We’re just a little bit cooler-headed, and we’re a lot more likely to save lives instead of allowing people to die in favor of a fight. That's what Sanctuary cares about. What the Advent care about.
Plus, the Operators get so quickly attached to “their” girls! It’s all part of Sanctuary’s plan, but it’s so great having someone tied so closely to you once you get used to it.
* Maybelle-1, Interview with deutsches Zaubermädchen, Rügenfestung, German Bastion City, August 15, 2031
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Chapter Seventeen
Overclock shoved me out of the way. “QuikClots! Four of ‘em, and three HemoTonics!” She slid the backpack off and kicked it my way as she went to her knees at Sora’s side.
The Type Seventeen had been on her. Her stomach had been ripped open from her sternum all the way down to her skirt. Intestines slopped out from the gap, and blood poured past them. Pink bubbles popped from her mouth every time she tried to take a breath, and her skin was pale as she bled out.
I was too late. Sora was going to die right in front of me. Nothing else mattered. The missions in the menu? All the people I’d gotten out of the gym? My dad? Even saving Overclock? None of it mattered because I’d failed the only mission I’d given myself.
To find Sora and save her.
I sat down next to the backpack, tears filling my eyes as I shook and shivered. I didn’t deserve to be a Magical Girl. I hadn’t deserved to be Sora’s friend. I -
Overclock slapped me hard enough to knock me to the ground. My cheek felt wet with tears and…something hot. Was it blood?
“Move, you dumb bitch! Four QuikClots and three HemoTonics! Now, or she dies,” she screamed in my face. She shoved her hand back inside Sora’s wound.
I picked myself up, unzipped the backpack’s big pocket, and dumped all our medical supplies on the floor. My hands moved on their own, my mind in a daze. I popped the top off the first Easy-Cheese can. I handed it to Overclock and dug through the pile for a HemoTonic.
Overclock shoved the can into the mess that was Sora’s insides and pressed the top. Pink Easy-Cheese sprayed into her stomach, filling the spaces between her intestines. Her eyes opened wide, and her scream through blood bubbles jolted me out of my daze.
“You’re killing her!” I screamed as I popped the HemoTonic top and passed it to Overclock.
“No, the fucking Macks did that!” Overclock slammed the two tiny spikes into Sora’s right thigh. “More QuikClot! Two, one after the other! Then another HemoTonic!”
I popped the Easy-Cheese cans and handed them over. She jammed them into my friend’s stomach, one at a time, and fired them off. Then she jabbed the next HemoTonic into Sora’s other leg.
“This isn’t working! Luciole, if you want to save her life, buy a BloodSeal for her chest!”
“James! BloodSeal?” I screamed.
“Done,” James said in my ear. His voice was calm and steady, unlike Overclock’s yells and my screams. The package was phased in; a hexagonal box with a three-part lid on the bottom. A digital number pad on the top glowed green in the dark study room. BloodSeal, by Orson Biochem Inc., Licensed to SHOCKS and HANAF was written on the side. “Mana is at 10/75. This will hurt her, but it may stabilize your friend.”
“I need your hands! Grab the box, shove it right below her tits, and hold it there! Then dial…uh, James, what does she dial?”
“527808 is the code for diaphragm rupture, Luciole. That’s where the seal needs to be the most.” I crawled over with the BloodSeal and pressed the device against her sternum. My bloody finger slipped as I typed the number in. “527808. Give it another try.” I could hear Overclock popping the top on another can of Easy-Cheese behind me. I typed the number, double-checked it, and pressed ‘Enter’. The box whirred as the lid on the bottom opened against Sora’s blouse. She convulsed and sucked in a gasp of air, and I screamed.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“The BloodSeal just drove sixteen needles into Sora’s chest, Luciole. It’s creating artificial seals along her diaphragm and most of the severed blood vessels to her intestines and stomach.” The ‘fshhhhh’ of Easy-Cheese filling Sora’s guts was background noise to James in my ear.
“Luciole, WoundWall from James! Size 7!”
“Mana is at 4/75.” The item shimmered and formed before I could even ask, a long roll of translucent pink plastic wrap. “It simulates skin and keeps the wound clean and her insides inside. Pull her shirt off and stick it from the top of her wound to the bottom. It, uh, needs skin contact to seal. Undergarments can stay on. I’ll shut down visuals.”
With a ripping sound, I popped what was left of Sora’s blouse off. A much louder tearing noise followed; Overclock was working on the patch. I turned to help her and we slapped the patch over the jagged wound. Sometime in all the frantic effort, Sora had passed out, but her lungs still breathed up pink bubbles. They were less pink each time, though.
“Okay. That’s the best I can do for now,” said Overclock. She sat down against the blood-stained wall. “She’ll still die in the next day without a trauma team or a really good Pink, though. Nothing we can do about that.”
“But I saved you from bleeding out with your arm! What’s the difference?” I was still kneeling next to Sora, watching her breathe shallow breaths.
“She’s got massive damage to internal organs. I had a few veins and arteries that needed sealing. It’s a massive difference. She won’t bleed out, not as long as we can keep a HemoTonic in her every few minutes, but that damage is gonna be hell to fix.”
“So…” I paused. After everything she’d been through, I couldn’t imagine doing more to Sora. But she wouldn’t survive in the West End library, so we’d have to. “Thanks for saving her. What do we do now?”
Overclock stared at me, something like hunger in her eyes. She opened her mouth, closed it again, and started over. “You owe me. Unplug James. We need to talk in private.”
“Go ahead,” James said in my ear. “Type Twenty-One Emergences follow a pattern; bring in Ones and Fours, then start bringing in more. After it’s got enough scouts and hunters, Seventeens to help hunt or Eights to defend itself. If it’s building Type Seventeens here, it’s preparing for a hunt. Getting back to the shelter will be a planning and stealth question, not one of speed, and this is as safe a place as anywhere.”
Pulling James’s chip out with Overclock watching felt weird for some reason. I held it up. “Alright, what do you need?”
“I need Jimmy back.” She looked away, her face reddening in the faint light of the library.
Jimmy? She needed James back? But she’d just told me it was fine. Still, I’d told her she could have him. I reached out to hand his chip over. Then I stopped. Something felt wrong. “Why?”
“Because he’s my Operator!” Overclock’s eyes grew wild, her head tilting as she looked around the tiny study room. “I’ve had him in my head for two years! Two! Do you have any idea what that’s like?” I shook my head as she kept talking, her voice quiet.
“At first, I hated him. His damn voice was always there. Whenever I was with my friends causing trouble around Mill Bay or on a date, Jimmy came along. He’d shut down audio and video, but he was there. Do you know how awkward dinner and a movie are when you’re carrying a boy around in your ear and can’t even tell your date? And he was a constant reminder that my soccer career was over! I was really good freshman year, and getting enrolled meant sports were over for me! I hated him so much!” Her voice pitched higher and quicker as she ranted, barely pausing for breath.
My hand ached, and I looked down. I’d grabbed Sora’s hand without thinking, and as Overclock had talked faster and faster, I’d started squeezing. Loosening my grip, I nodded. “Why do you want him back, then?”
“I…I love him, okay?” Overclock’s cheeks burned a bright crimson. She stood up, kicked at the table, and turned her back on me.
“So I was right? You’re dating?”
“No! God no! Eew.” She wrapped her arm around her chest like she was trying to hug herself. “You have a little sister, right?”
I nodded. “Claire. She’s eleven. When I’m done here, I’m going back to Duncan Towers to make sure she’s okay.” I patted Sora’s hand. She couldn’t feel it, but it made me feel better.
“Jimmy’s that way. I started to get that always being there wasn’t just a job for him, and it wasn’t him being a creeper, either. Mom and Dad were busy working and didn’t get how to help me with all this.” She gestured at her filthy, shredded blazer and skirt. “I hated Jimmy, but he got me. And he kept trying. I know I was his assignment, and what he did was all his training and his Operator’s manual, but having Jimmy was like having a big brother. I think - I’ve never had siblings.”
“He’s there for you all the time,” I said. I’d only had James for a day, but I was leaning on him to help fight Macks, for spell advice, and just as someone to talk to. He was comfortable - not pushy, but the most supportive person I could imagine. To have him for four years? To build something with him, and then to have it taken away because some stupid high school girl got you hurt?
“Not just with the Macks, either, kid. He had my back with the stupid Girls on Team AuRORa when they figured out I was crushing on May Lei-” She stopped, growing pale. “If you ever tell anyone that, I’ll force-feed you FastBlasts until you puke.” I mimed zipping my lips.
“Jimmy got me transferred off AuRORa and onto ResCute. Even showed up to help me move to their building. Fuck. We were having some trouble before your graduation, but I was going to forgive him, I swear. I love him, and he’s always been there for me, and I need him back! Please…”
Giving James back had to be the right thing to do. There was no way I could keep Overclock from her best friend and brother, not and feel right about myself. Especially not after she’d saved my best friend. But I still hesitated. Losing him would feel strange, even if I’d gotten Sora back. And how could I protect her without him?
Still…
Sora’s time was running out slowly. We had to work together to get her to safety, and right now, that meant giving James to Overclock. I was tapped out on mana anyways, or nearly there.
“Okay, he’s all yours.” I handed the chip over to Overclock, who was tearing up and shaking just a little. She nodded wordlessly in thanks.
She held the chip for a moment, reached back, and slotted it into her drive port. Her voice cracked, and tears of relief ran down her face. “Hi, Jimmy. I’m back. Don’t ever leave me again, promise?”