Chapter-Twenty Four
The door clicked shut behind me and I thumbed the lock shut. As the other girls’ doors also shut one by one, I climbed into my bed and lay there. Candice’s and Li Mei’s voices were soon talking excitedly with their Operators on either side of me, but I flipped the chip over and over in my hands.
My stomach flipped along with it. No matter who it was on the other end, it wouldn’t be James.
Was I okay with that?
Candice’s voice grew silent. I could hear her moving around, though. Li Mei continued her happy-sounding conversation. When it switched languages, I sat up and placed the chip in my drive port.
I could feel the sweat on my hands as I pushed the chip in until it clicked. It didn’t really matter if I was okay with it. James wasn’t going to be there, and that was fine. Really.
“Hello, Alice! I’m reading heart rate at 123 beats per minute, which is high. I’m Bentley.” The accent was Yorkshire, not Oxford. The voice was deeper and slower.
I took a deep breath. “Hi. Alice, er, Luciole, I guess. I don’t…I don’t know where to go on this conversation.”
“I thought that might be the case from your profile. You’ve talked with James, so you know a bit. Let’s meet in a virtual space. It’ll be easier to talk through things that way, I think.”
Nodding, I asked, “How do I do that?”
“I’m glad you asked. In your closet are four, uh, wetsuit-looking things. Put on the one that’s your size and open up the tank below your bed. Hop in. We’ll go to an empty space - you’ve met Mme. Baudelaire, it’s like that. Then I’ll walk you through the system in-depth and get your organs running again.”
“Yeah, okay.” I climbed down and looked in the closet for the wetsuit. “Shut down audio and visual feeds, please, Bentley.”
“Shutting down. Message when you’re done.” His voice cut off.
“So polite,” I said to myself. The suit fit like a glove, from the toes and fingers to the turtleneck ending at my jawline. I walked over to the tank and opened it. Inside was a pool of water about sixty centimeters deep and a few lights. I sent a ping to Bentley.
“Oh good, you’re ready. Climb in. You’ll float, so it’s okay.”
I dipped a toe in. “That’s cold!” I whined as I carefully lowered the rest of my body in.
“It’s supposed to be. Everything’s going to be running in your brain and microcomputer, and we don’t want to overheat you. Now, close your eyes and the suit will do the rest.”
The tank shut over me, and the lights went out.
I floated for a long time, my eyes shut. My thoughts wandered. Would I have a graduation ceremony? Could I get Sora to listen to me for a second? Who was Mme. Baudelaire? What would it be like to have my powers back.
Then my thoughts stopped. My lungs stopped. Even my heart stopped.
I stood in nothingness again. My body was that same turquoise wireframe I’d been in my dream of Mme. Baudelaire’s Boutique. But this time, I wasn’t alone.
[Welcome to the desert of the imagined,] Bentley’s speech bubble faded away. He looked nothing like I’d expected. A two-foot-long otter - or maybe a weasel - with six feet stood on its hind legs in front of me. It waved a yellow wireframe paw. [We’ll need to build this into a loading hub for you, since a lot of SHOCKS is virtual but for now, let me introduce you to you.]
[Me?]
[Yes, you. The field system is wonderful for quickly leveling up, but it doesn’t explain what’s happening very well. In this simulation, we’ll be able to see the impacts of your choices as you level.]
[Okay, Bentley. What’s first?]
I felt a warmth in my stomach, then a familiar emptiness above my belly button. [I’ve turned your mana organs back on. You’ll be quite hungry when you come out of the simulation. Let’s discuss how mana works. Ask for a system model.]
[Okay. System Model, please!]
A giant, four-meter-tall me appeared, its body made of a faint red wireframe. I waved at it, and as I did, it lifted its arm and waved in sync with me.
A point of light glowed on ‘my’ back, below the ribs. [The Sanctuary replaced three organs. The first is a creation engine. It’s the largest of the three. It converts food into both nanites and raw materials for the nanites to make weapons and supplies for you. It also runs on calories, so the more active you are, the more food you’ll need.]
A small line glowed, and then another point low on my stomach.
[That’s the microcomputer. It controls your nanite swarms. As you level, the software is patched and upgraded, allowing nanites to perform more complex and specialized tasks, including magic.]
I thought for a minute as the point glowed in front of me. Something was wrong. [Why can’t it just be fully upgraded to start? Wouldn’t that be better to fight Macks with?]
[It would be. Two reasons. First, Sanctuary believes each Magical Girl will be a good carrier, but it doesn’t always work out. Some Girls can’t handle the pressure, or they go rogue. Others just aren’t as compatible with the nanite system as you were, and it’s not clear why.]
[Okay, that makes sense, I think?] I wasn’t sure what a rogue Magical Girl would even be like. I’d never heard of that before. But compatibility made sense. [And the second reason?]
The glowing line and the point on the model’s stomach faded away, while the one in its back formed a clean shape. It was hexagonal, and 12 centimeters across at most.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
[That’s the engine with five points in Soul.]
It grew until it was 24 centimeters and a pair of thick tubes jutted off of it.
[Fifteen points.]
It grew again, stretching out until it was nearly 48 centimeters long.
[And that’s twenty-five points,] Bentley said. [As your system grows, it takes more and more specialized programs to run. That growth happens over time, up to a point, but it also depends on the points you invest. So the software to run the organs’ new hardware is tied behind levels. It also encourages Magical Girls to do their jobs, in case they needed incentive.]
[And the third organ?]
[Ah, yes, the third organ.] The Bentley-otter ran around the giant model’s legs as two points in her mouth lit up, along with a network of lines running down her arm and tiny dots in her hands.
[The organs that replaced your tonsils are nanite storage devices. They grow with Will, so your reserves for spells and creation are tied to that stat. The lines are techno-neural pathways and the dots in your hands are spell storage nodes.]
I nodded, remembering the pain that was almost entirely gone now but had been my constant guest for days.
[Their growth and the software updates at Level Five are critical to spellcasting. Any nanite has the “help with Mana Surge” programming, only certain ones have the “cast Blazing Light” one. They wait in the carpal nodes until they get the signal to do their thing.]
My mind whirled. All this was happening inside of me? Thousands or millions of machines were being given orders by…some boy I’d never met? And software upgrades were being tied to what I did as a Magical Girl? The whole system model had raised more questions in me than answers.
[I’ll need to…think about all this.] I hedged.
The otter stared at me, standing on its back legs again. [It’s really a lot, isn’t it? To break it down, though, you get more powerful as we install upgrades, and you earn upgrades by helping people and fighting Macks. It’s a vicious cycle.]
[Nope, I’m not thinking about it any more right now.] I shook my head to clear it. [Show me my stat block.]
[No can do. You have missions to complete first!]
[Okay, Mission Menu, please!]
Mission
Difficulty
Status
Rewards
Type Twenty-One
Overwhelming (Team Help)
Complete?
1 level, 1 spell slot
Secure Floor Two
Challenging
Complete?
1 point in Strength
[Wow, those rewards for killing the Type Twenty-One are good.] I thought about what I’d do with an extra spell slot. Moonray had been high on the list, but I hadn’t been able to take it before. [Complete, Complete!]
[Actually, those rewards are lower than they could have been. When Team ResCute came in to save you and Overclock, the rewards were recalculated. You also leveled from fighting and the other mission’s experience.]
Level Up! Congratulations!
You have reached Level Seven! Consult your operator for help assigning points to your statistics.
You have reached Level Eight! Consult your operator for help assigning points to your statistics.
[Okay, show me my spells.]
Blazing Light x2
Force Missile x3
Earth Fist x2
Summon Familiar x1
Shock Burst x2
Wind Rush x3
Enlarge x1
Radiance x1
Shatter x2
Summon Greatsword x1
[You also have some basics, like Moonray, Mistwalker, Recharge, and Magic Weapon.]
I remembered my talk with James. [Isn’t Recharge really unhealthy?]
The otter stopped. [It’s not great, but if you eat like a growing girl instead of a pigeon, it’s sustainable to cast in emergencies.]
[Huh. Maybe next spell slot, then. Let’s go with, uh…Mistwalker or Moonray?] I hesitated.
[You’re a Red. Moonray for sure. I watched the ResCute footage - at level 20, you can upgrade it to Star Ray, like Sunburst had.]
[Moonray it is. For stats, uh, 2 to Soul, 2 to Will, 1 to Vitality, and 1 to Agility. Accept!]
Basics
Name: Pendleton, Alice (Luciole)
Level: 8
Class: _____
Color: Red
Mana: 32/85
HP: 60/60
Statistics
Str: 4
Agi: 6
Vit: 10
Will: 17
Soul: 14
Points: 6
Sigils: 0 (1 used)
Rank: _
Skills
Perk: Fogform
Mana Surge: Feu-Follet
Spells: Blazing Light (2/2), Moonray (2/2)
Operator: Bentley (Tags)
[Why does your name say ‘Tags’ next to it?]
[It’s a familiar name, for when I’m in virtual space. I’m always an otter. I have it easy - Roger’s Candice’s Operator, and he got a deer.]
The otter - Tag - stared at me, head turned sideways. [I watched a replay of your fight with the Type Four, in the gym.]
[Oh really? Got any pointers?]
[Just one. You handled it well considering your lack of resources, but with a basic tweak to your eye aug, I could update your mana and health in real-time so you didn’t need to have me telling you.]
[Why didn’t James do that?] That seemed really out of character for how precise he’d been with everything else.
[Time, probably. Everything was an emergency, and you had to know the basics.]
I thought for a second. A gauge for my health and mana would be nice. But would it block up my vision? [Can you make it small and somewhere it won’t annoy me?]
[Sure.] A little red bar popped up at the bottom of my vision, followed by a blue one at the top. [They’re see-through outside of fighting so they’re not distracting. It’s pretty basic, but we can change it until you’re happy.]
My stomach rumbled. The otter looked at me for a second. Its head turned, and it laughed. [Actually, let’s get you out of the simulation and find some food. Generating your mana back to full is a calorie-heavy process.]