Clara Roth was not having a good day.

Okay, that was a fucking understatement. She was having a terrible day.

"Miss Red! How does it feel to be the heroine of the hour?"

"Miss Riding Hood! You were at the center of that hostage situation, how are you handling the aftermath?"

"What are your thoughts on Ezekiel Novak? Were his demands unreasonable?"

This was the most attention she had gotten in a long time. But at the same time... she didn't want this. She didn't want this.

She just wanted to be left alone.

A dozen different journalists circled around Clara like vultures, all asking her questions at once as she lit her fourth cigarette of the evening, marching out of the precinct.

Fuck this. Fuck them. Fuck this whole situation.

All she wanted was to go home, shower, and get back to her normal, plain civilian life. The night before, she had strongly contemplated full retirement, putting her powers away for good.

Clara just wanted to spend her days setting some spoiled rascals back on the right path so they could do something about this damned world. Just do her part. Make what little difference she could. She just wanted to find a good, kind man who could love her and accept her. A man she could love and accept in return, and come home to in blissful quiet.

Now, that would soon be out of her reach. She'd blown her secret identity. It was only a matter of time before the kids and other teachers talked, and leaked her civilian identity to the wider world. It wouldn't be long until the other kids and faculty at her school found out that she wasn't the sweet little chubby woman they thought she was. That she was a veteran Magical Girl keeping watch over them, trying to keep the peace and stave away otherworldly horrors. Sure, it was illegal to blow a MG's civilian ID, but nothing that protected her if she did it of her own volition. And she did. In front of millions.

But what else was she supposed to do? Clara was, at her core, someone who wanted to help people. If she hadn't stopped Ezekiel Novak, a good man's death would have been on her hands through inaction. A good man failed by a system that had failed him again, and again, and again. Ezekiel was no monster, and she couldn't let him die like that and traumatize an entire generation of kids.

But now everyone would know who she was. The secret was out.. She didn't know what she was going to do.

Clara had to deal with the media and her incompetent, stupid peers at the same time, already. Her phone had blown up with messages, to the point she'd stopped paying attention to it entirely.

And that fucking asshole of a Superintendent Bullfinch. He'd been questioning her like she was a criminal. She'd been honest with him, but he still seemed to be suspicious of her. Like her entire cover had been a fucking lie. All the goodwill. The sweat and tears she'd put into both her careers. A complete and utter lie.

"Miss Red." One of them tried to get her attention. "There was a hostage situation at the Museum of Earth History. Your thoughts on that? You were at the scene, correct? Apprehended the perpetrators?"

She growled, pulling her cigarette out of her mouth. "You know what, fuck you all. Fuck you all. None of you ever asked me about my own well-being. You don't give a shit about me. All of you vultures are the same, you just want to get your story. I'm going to go home and turn off my phone, and if you want to know any further details, you can go straight to hell."

"Miss Red, you were the only one in a position to reason with-"

She was just so tired of it, and she was so tired of this world.

For Christ's sake, the least she could ask for today was some fucking peace and quiet.

"Miss Red! Do you have any message for your fans?"

"Ooh, miss Riding Hood! What's your next move?

"Miss Riding Hood! What's your opinion on the decades-long schism between Babylon and Sisyphus? I understand you are affiliated with the military-"

"Miss Riding Hood! Where do you stand on the NAPC's response to the hostage situation?"

Clara looked at the reporters surrounding her with an exhausted expression.

A dozen flashbulbs went off as she raised her hand, her cigarette dangling from her lips.

She took a lungful of smoke. "I'm going home," she said. "I'm not some fucking media darling, I'm a professional, and I'm going to go home. I've had a long day and I just want to go to bed. You can all fuck off, you assholes."

Her eyes glowed red with magic, and a gust of wind erupted around her as her hooded cape flapped in the air.

Then, she simply vanished in a swirl of red rose petals.