Since beating the director, those strange dreams I’d been having had stopped. Or, more so that they were now a garbled mess. While I’d had trouble remembering them in the early days, now I couldn’t understand them in the first place.

“Hey, Mai,” I turned to address the girl lead next to me in my bed. “Have you still been having those dreams? The one with the voice?”

“The same voice as the one that spoke when we got our powers?”

“Yeah, you still hear it in your dreams sometimes?” Mai sat up next to me and put her hand to her chin, thinking back on recent dreams.

“I think I’m still hearing it, but not clearly. Like it has bad reception I guess?”

“Did that start happening after we beat the director?”

“That same night, yeah.”

Saki had said the same thing. At this point it couldn’t just be a coincidence. Something about that day had scrambled those dreams for some reason. Though i couldn’t exactly figure out what.

“I think I have an idea what the reason could be…” Mai looked off into the distance as she spoke, as if the answer was coming to her from afar. “Do you remember what the director said about our powers? About why we grow while our enemies stagnate?”

“A connection with God, right? One that the director had severed in the other magical girls?”

“Exactly. If we assume the voice we heard to be the voice of God, do you think us rejecting his rule over earth is the reason we can’t hear it well anymore? Like we’ve inhibited that connection in a way?”

“I… hadn’t thought of that.” The idea made a lot of sense once it was pointed out. We had no way of understanding what our ‘connection with God’ truly meant, but it could assumed that rejecting his will would strain it. “Wait, does that mean our powers are gonna stop growing too?”

“Who knows? We can still hear him a little, so I would guess some of that connection is still there. Maybe we’ll stop improving if the connection splits for good?”

“Or worse, we could lose our powers altogether.”

While I had little desire to live as a superhero like the magical girls that attacked us, we had effectively declared war against both heaven and hell. If we suddenly lost our ability to use magical power, that war would be unlikely to end well.

“I think it’s just a problem we’ll have to deal with when we get there,” I said, trying to shake off the concern gripping my heart. “Now come on, lazy ass, we’ll be late for school if you don’t get moving.”

“Urghhhh, five more hours.”

“I think we’d definitely be late at that rate.”

“Carry me downstairs.”

“You’re naked.”

“Dress me.”

“Do it yourself, dammit.”

“You’re the one who undressed me, now you need to correct that.”

“…I hate that I can’t find a flaw in your logic. Fortunately, that doesn’t matter when I have nothing to lose. Get dressed or I’m leaving for school on my own.”

“Your cruelty knows no bounds, Mr Nomimoto. I will accede to your demands, but I do so only because you leave me no other choice.”

“Sure thing, Sōseki, but if you’re done waxing poetic we’re already behind schedule.”

Continuing to grumble like a child, Mai changed into her spare set of school clothes and we headed downstairs to eat a breakfast, only sparing Gen and Kandai a quick “good morning” before making our way to the train station.

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“I feel like I know the way to the station from your house better than I do from my own at this point.”

“I’m surprised your parents let you stay over so often honestly.”

“Well, they are still under the impression that you’re a girl.”

“But they know we’re dating, right?”

“Sure, but a girl can’t get me pregnant. That’s all they’re worried about.”

“…we should probably be more careful going forward.”

“That… would probably be for the best.”

The morning continued as every morning did. Mai and I bantered back and forth the same way we always did, we met up with Saki and Sunao on the way, and we all got to class just before the bell. In all aspects, it seemed like a normal day. Yet, the whole time, some part of my mind was occupied with the Director’s words.

What was so special about today? Why was he so adamant about delaying until today specifically?

I knew I’d likely get some of my answers simply by waiting until school ended, but waiting had me agitated. I tried to keep my mind occupied by paying attention to my surroundings, and that’s when I noticed something else that was out of the ordinary.

“You good, Kei? I don’t think I’ve seen you this quiet since… ever, actually.” I was surprised at the complete lack of noise coming from the school’s queen of gossip, who seemed uncharacteristically down today.

“Hmm? Oh, Sora. Yeah, I’m doing okay. Or… I guess I’m not. Someone pretty close to me died today.” Kei’s tone was sombre, far more so than I had ever heard it before. I felt bad for commenting on her being quiet, but she didn’t seem to acknowledge my rudeness at all.

“Ah. I’m sorry to hear that. Family member?”

“More like a mentor, I guess. Can’t say I actually liked him all that much, but him being gone still doesn’t feel real. Just kinda hit me today that people can disappear from your life in the blink of an eye, y’know?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I think I know the feeling.” I knew it as well as anyone else. I had had to deal with it since I was barely old enough to do times tables, so I could sympathise with the empty feeling Kei had likely been struck with.

“Ah, but don’t let me be a wet blanket. Go have fun with Saki and the others like normal, I’d kinda like to be alone with my thoughts for a little while.”

“Alright. I’ll leave you alone. But… I really do know that feeling. Probably better than anyone else in this room. So if you feel like talking…”

“I appreciate it, really, but there’s not a lot to talk about. I’m sure the shock’ll pass soon.”

There was little else I could even say to her in that situation. Losing someone for the first time was never an easy thing to go through, so leaving her to figure things out in her own time was the best thing I could do for her.

“Yo, you’re back. What’s got Kei so down though?” Saki was the first to address me when I returned to our table.

“I don’t think that’s really my secret to tell, but I’m sure she’d tell you if you asked. Regardless, I think it’s probably best to give her some space for today.”

The three of them seemed to get the message from my tone of voice alone, and wordlessly agreed to leave Kei to her own devices.

“More importantly, Sh- Sora, I need you to settle an important debate between me and Nao. Top level shit. Listen to this: Nao thinks Fatal Kombat is a better fighting game than Iron Fist. Can you believe that?”

“Y-you only like Iron Fist because you think 3D takes more skill. Kombat has far more intricate combos and precise execution.”

“Sounds like a whole lot of ‘skill issue’ to me, Naochan.”

I felt stupid for even considering entertaining their stupid argument.

“Have they been going on like this the whole time I was talking to Kei?” I asked Saki, the one person at the table who wasn’t arguing over nonsense.

“Pretty much. They both keep throwing out words like ‘frame data’ and ‘North Korean backdash’ or whatever. Plus they shut me down the second I said I prefer Avenue Brawler to either of them.”

“So you’re the only non-elitist here for once, Saki?”

“I don’t like I like the implication, thank you for very much.” With Saki huffing at me overdramatically, I turned my attention back to the other two.

“Sorry, girls, but I’ve got no horse in this race. I’m more of a Super Smash Sisters fan myself.”

“Of course you’d like the one with the all female cast, you pervert.” Mai stuck her tongue out at me, and I now had two people at the table huffing and turning their nose up at me.

“Oh, come on Mai, you know the only girl I have eyes for is you.”

“Don’t think some smooth talk is gonna make me forgive you for not siding with me. If you’re not blindly supporting me in all of my pointless arguments, what’s even the point in dating?”

“Love and affection?”

“Maybe if you’re 12. This is the real world, Sora.”

The four of us continued bickering over pointless crap for the remainder of our free time, indulging in the same comfortable status quo we’d enjoyed this past month. Part of me said that it was stupid to be whiling away time on meaningless stuff like this when we could be training to get stronger, but there was a bigger part of me that was simply appreciative that I was able to spend time with my friends like this in the first place. That I had a status quo that was worth protecting.

I knew that, come the end of the day, that status quo could be brought to the ground completely. So I gave myself one last day to enjoy worry-free, aware that our lives may be about to change for good.

And as the hours ticked down, and the time to leave school and go to the prison crept closer, I could feel that status quo slipping through my hands like sand.

No matter what threat was coming our way, I was resolute in defeating it. If it meant protecting these peaceful adolescent days spent with the people I loved, I would face down any enemy.

What I wasn’t expecting, was that such an enemy would be rearing it’s head so soon.