August 25, 493 U.C.

The sunlight passed through the plastic overhead. My smile mirrored the beaming light. With a grin, I walked up to the nice single-story house and knocked.

Daniele opened the door. “Get in here!” she said cheerily.

I walked inside their house, enjoying the pictures that lined the off-white walls. A large screen was mounted nearby. The door shut behind me. I turned back.

With a giddy grin, Daniele spun and presented her fairy plushie. “I finally got mine!”

“Yay!” I pulled mine out from behind my back and giggled. She was clutching it like it was the greatest thing in existence.

“I can get you more of them! All you want!” Ela shouted.

“Stop that!”

“I saw you on the news! Like my outfit?” Ela shifted to wearing the Viper outfit.

“Take that off right now!”

Ela shook her head. “No! I’m a Viper!”

“You’re a terror!”

“Excited for a break?” Daniele asked.

“Yes. The fae are exhausting me.” I groaned.

“They seem to be interested in you or something.”

“You’re on the list too. Don’t even think you aren’t,” I said, taking off my shoes. “They are tormenting me. Now, I’m just using the other girls as body blockers.”

“Why?” Daniele asked.

“Because I don’t want to deal with fae drama. It won’t help me get magic.” I followed her to her room. The pink swarmed over me. Spinning, I plopped on the soft white couch, landing on my back.

“It’s so nice to get a break. Hi, Doctor!” I looked up at him while lying on my back with the plushie in my arms. It felt nice to do this. The couch was so soft.

“Hello,” Larry said with a chuckle. “Long week?”

“The longest!” I giggled.

“She’s making friends with the fae,” Daniele said.

I turned towards her. “Enemies more like. I will find a new way to torture them.”

“I’m glad you are having fun,” Larry said with a smile. He looked at my arms and legs. “Anything we need to know about.”

I flushed and looked at my long sleeves and tights to be certain. “It’s nothing.”

“Casey, know that you can talk to us,” Larry said gently.

“I just felt like long sleeves and jeans.”

“I heard that you had been fishing for four years to try to get magic. Did he make you do it?” Larry asked.

“No,” I lied. “He didn’t.” This was becoming a mess. Worse still, I had realized that my deception skills were quite mediocre. One critic used the word atrocious, but Dad is mean like that.

I pulled out of my musing about that and smiled at him.

“Just let us know if you need anything, alright?” Larry asked.

“I will. Thanks, doc.”

“You’re welcome. And do keep that secret about Daniele.”

“I will. You should go fishing, Daniele. It might wake it up.”

Daniele winced. “That sounds terrible.”

I nodded. “I agree, but you should do it once. Though I don’t know if you need it. I still think your brother is a guardian.”

“Why?” Larry asked.

“Just a feeling.” I chuckled.

“No. He’s at school,” Daniele said with a giggle.

“If I’m right, you owe me a plushie of him to join my others.”

Daniele grinned and held out her own. “I can’t believe that I got one. I’m so excited. Does it bother you?”

“Of course not. I’m excited for you. I’ll have a magic girl for a friend! That’ll be fun.”

Larry chuckled. “I’ll leave you to it. Have some fun. Casey, let us know if you ever need anything.”

“Thanks, I will.” I smiled up at him. He walked back into the hall. I turned back to the room, smiling at the pictures and posters on her wall.

Daniele went over to her shelves and began looking through things. She grabbed two card decks. “Want to play games?”

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“Sure. What do you want to play?” I asked, sitting up.

“Magical Guardians!”

I giggled. Daniele sat down and handed me a deck. We started shuffling the decks and drew cards. I looked at my hand. Then I placed down a card with a Sunshine and waggled my brows.

She laid down Cupcake with a smirk.

“Pew pew,” I said as I placed down energy and an upgrade. Then I attacked!

“You are so lucky! But not lucky enough!” She giggled and placed down Jackhammer along with an upgrade and energy.

“What? He’s new!”

“I got lucky,” Daniele said with a grin.

I groaned. He was overpowered. “How do I get a Platinum set? One where I play the entire deck in a turn?”

“That’s not a thing!” Daniele giggled.

“It should be a thing. Maybe I need Viper for that.”

“Did you see her on the news?” Daniele asked, giggling harder. “I almost died laughing when she started playing peek-a-boo!”

“What? I’m sure she had a good reason,” I defended myself.

“It was adorable. She’s supposed to be our first villain, and she was helping a struggling mom! The news is now questioning if she’s Platinum.”

“I heard her say that she stole those powers!” I laid down a Fanged Fury card. Then I put down an energy and shot again.

Daniele studied her cards. “I did hear that. Can you imagine if that’s true? How many powers would she even have?”

“No idea,” I lied. “This is going to hurt.” I groaned as both Cupcake and Jackhammer attacked.

“Do you have your own deck?” Daniele asked.

“No. Maybe I’ll get one at some point.”

“You should!”

“I’ll help!” Ela added.

“You stop that! And stop toggling colors on that quest!” I said back.

I drew extra cards. Then I grinned. “Ah ha!” I placed down Adagio. Then I added energy to him.

“Well, I will have to finish you fast.”

I attacked with the three of them, wounding her little squad greatly.

Daniele gave me an evil look and placed down Sabrina. That got a groan from me.

“I see your Adagio and invoke ice chains!” Daniele proclaimed.

“No!” I yelled into the sky. Then I giggled. “Foisted again. Have you seen him when he gets to full power?”

“Yes. That dude gets wild. I wonder if Jackhammer will end up similar.”

“He might. He builds up so much.” I frowned as she then healed her squad. “Cheater! Where’s my pink?”

“Pink deck is mine! You’re a yellow!”

I grabbed a piece of paper. “Wrong! I’m a Platinum!” I laid down my hastily made card. “This is the Platinum Princess! Everyone in the squad is now too fast to be hit! And I get five turns instead of one. And -”

“You can’t make your own cards!” Daniele protested.

“I just did! Fear Platinum Princess! She doesn’t do rules!”

“Then I get Viper! What now?” Daniele burst into giggles.

“Fine.” Then I groaned as I drew the wrong cards. I attacked and then got demolished in the next round.

“We have guardian club in two weeks,” Daniele said as she gathered her cards.

“They better not just try to make me cosplay. I’m not doing that.”

“Come on! You’d make a cute magic girl!”

“I would not!” I protested. That’s when I realized that Daniele didn’t even know what I looked like. None of them did. That hurt me more than I expected. I was lying to all of them.

I swallowed it back and looked at the time. “I need to go. Chores.” I packed the box and handed it to her.

“Stop by anytime,” Daniele said. “My parents said it was alright.” She reached out and touched my arm. “I mean it, Casey. Stop by anytime.”

I smiled at her. “Thanks. That’s nice to know. I need to check on my cousin.” I stood, handed her the deck, grabbed my Ela plushie, and headed to the door.

Daniele followed me. “See you, Casey. I had fun.” She waved.

I waved back. “I did too. See you!” Then I walked back home and walked inside.

Dad frowned. “Training now.”

I nodded and went to change. I swapped into my exercise clothes and headed to the sparring room. Walking into the room with the polished wooden floor, I headed to the weapon rack and grabbed the practice blades. Then I turned and looked at Dad.

“Casey, we’re counting on you. Don’t get upset with the people who are have reticence. Seeding is painful,” Dad said as he picked up his own.

“Dad, it was a school night! And I needed them to hurry!”

“If school is going to interfere, you need to leave it, Casey. That was the deal. This is far too important. You know that. You know that they’ll kill us both the moment they find out.”

I nodded. Guess I pushed too far. Swallowing back the emotion, I took a stance while my stomach grumbled. Then I began my defensive maneuvering to keep his attacks at bay.

It was long. It was painful. I didn’t want to be there then, and I don’t want to relive it now. Training sucks. It always has.

When it was finally over, I made dinner and ate. Dad went off on one of his absurdly long lectures about terrifying people. I didn’t listen to it. I just massaged my leg and ate while sorrow built like a looming storm. I was lying to Daniele, and it hurt. She was one of the very few friends that I had.

When I was finally done eating, I headed to my room and worked on chores before I finally collapsed on my bed, drifting off almost instantly.

Current Level 11 Current XP 6.01% Current Max Mana 8676.65 Regen per minute 13.15 Reputation 7000

Tier Skill Cost Tier 11 User Time Dilation (Haste)

- User experiences 256 seconds for 1 earth second.

- Force transference limited to 25%. 1 mana per earth second. Tier 7 Pocket Dimension

- 128 cubic meters of pocket space.

- Rapid stash and rapid draw.

- You may tether objects to your pocket space.

- Your pocket space preserves, cleans, and organizes items inside based on your will. 32 mana Tier 7 Time Stop

- Caster leaves spacetime. They may remove and place things back in spacetime.

- You may control the flow of time in the demiplane.

- You may summon in willing living creatures.

- This automatically triggers if you take significant damage.

- Recast to gain vision. 200 mana to cast.

Variable cost to move items in and out. Tier 7 Teleport.

- Teleports the caster or a willing creature.

- You may cast this on a willing or unwilling creature if they are within fifty meters.

- You may teleport inside an object, causing the matter to push outward.

200 mana for the caster.

400 mana for a willing creature.

1000 mana for an unwilling creature with no resistance.

- Short range casts cost less mana.

Tier 3 Attire Swap

- Locked to a single outfit. Current outfit set to Magical Girl Uniform.

- Attire cleaned on swap.

- Attire repaired on swap. 20 mana. Tier 3 Enhanced Body

-Caster’s body is enhanced by a factor of eight. 2 mana per caster second. Tier 2 Enchanting.

- Enchantments last twice as long. Variable cost. Tier 2 Potions.

- Potions last twice as long. Variable cost. Tier 2 Familiar Manifestation. 20 mana to cast. Tier 1 Free casting

- Cast any spell you can replicate. Variable cost. Penalty of 8x mana.