September 7, 493 U.C.

Like an unending sunbeam, Daniele’s smile lit the area in a warm glow. She happily skipped down the hall as school ended on Thursday.

I just basked in her happiness. That girl. Give her some Ela time and a plushie. “What did you two talk about?”

“Not much. Just gossip.” Daniele said cheerily, her wedges clumping on the fake tile below her feet. I studied the black wedges.

I frowned. “Be careful, she's tricky.”

Daniele grinned at me which was a bit terrifying. I was really second-guessing my choices as she clomped down the hall.

“Should I get some wedges?” I asked.

“Yes. They’d look good on you. Do you have anything besides your sneakers?”

“No. Dad isn’t much for shopping,” I said, “or allowances.”

Daniele grinned. “I have some you could try.”

“Thanks. I’m taking you up on it.” I followed her down the hall and turned, entering a room.

Daniele smiled. “Hi, everyone.”

I looked around the guardian club. It was smaller than I expected. Half of them were in costume. I didn’t recognize the person dressed as Sabrina. The light blue dress was pretty, and the makeup was immaculate.

“Oh, hi. Some of us dress up. It’s not a requirement,” the Sabrina impersonator said.

“Oh, good.” I had too many costume changes already. I did not need another.

Daniele took a seat and studied the impersonator. “Ryan?”

“I’m Sabrina right now,” Ryan said nervously.

“You sure are,” I replied while leaning in closer. “I didn’t even recognize you. What pronouns?”

Ryan smiled. “Whatever you like when I’m like this. He outside of here.”

“Gotcha girl.” I winked and chuckled. “What do you do in guardian club?”

“We usually discuss school activities and current events. Then we play some games.”

“We are debating how to get the fae to attend,” a boy dressed as Fanged Fury said with a grin.

“Good luck,” I said. I’m not helping with that.

“But you could help! They like you two!” he protested.

“No, they like being left alone,” I said. “We have been doing that, but I suppose that I could beg them.”

“Do you know any more Faiin?” he asked. “I learned how to say ‘I don’t know.’”

“Nope,” I lied. “They are being protective. – Gah! Bad, Sabrina! Glitter showers are not acceptable spell substitutes!” I looked at the drizzle of glitter that was falling all around and over me.

Ryan giggled hysterically. My face just made it worse.

Daniele giggled. “I loved it. Nice geyser.”

“Thank you!” Ryan said while brandishing the bag.

I studied the makeup. It was way better than mine. “Are you wearing makeup, using holotech, or what?”

“Makeup,” Ryan said. “I’m good at it. I’ve practiced a bit.”

“Cool. I’ll call you when I need a doppelgänger.”

“Why would you need that?”

“My dad can get on my nerves.” I chuckled.

“I guess I could do that. You should come as a magic girl next time.”

“YOU HAVE A FAMILIAR PLUSHIE!” someone yelled. I turned to Daniele, who was grinning and holding the plushie while talking to someone.

“HOW?” some girl yelled and raced over.

Daniele grinned. “I got a quest when they did the system upgrade. She said that she’d get me one if I got tested. And I did.”

“Casey!” Ela said, fluttering out and looking at everyone.

“No!”

“Come on! Summon me! We’ll have a ball!”

“No! And don’t try to mess with me! I’m having fun.”

Ela flitted and pretended to sit on Ryan’s shoulder. “She’s more fun! Summon me so I can play with her!”

“Hello, ladies,” a junior drawled as he walked in. “Looking fabulous.”

“Hit him with Geyser, Sabrina!” I ordered.

“You keep those sparkles away from me!”

Ryan laughed and chased him around the room with a bag of sparkles.

“Alright, let’s call this mad house to order,” a boy up front said with a chuckle.

Ryan came and sat by me. “We could make the full squad.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Ryan did not accept that. “Help me, Daniele! We can try to win the guardian lookalike contest!”

“We should do it!” Daniele said, piling on the peer pressure.

I groaned as they ganged up on me.

“Order everyone! Thanks for coming. For those who don’t know me, I’m Ryung-woo. I’m a senior. We do have a few events coming up. And they have decided to do a guardian theme for the fall dance. We will be helping with it. In addition, the school has asked us to keep an eye out for suspicious people.”

“Why is Ryan dressed like a girl?” someone asked.

“Because he wants to be. Dress how you want. We don’t care. You know the school policies. We have the same. That covers the important stuff. Have some fun. We do play some games.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“What about the secret project to get the fae to show up?” someone called out.

“Or the project to learn Faiin?”

The boy up front banged his hand. “Those are still real. See what you can do! And welcome to the club newcomers! Yes, Casey?”

“How do we earn fae reputation or galactic credits in here?” I asked.

“I know how!” Ela proclaimed.

“Quiet!”

“Sadly, they haven’t enabled that yet. We’re hopeful. We’ll see how it goes. Any other questions from the newcomers? – No? - Have some fun!”

I turned to Ryan. “Girl, what do you want to do?”

“Let’s play!”

“I don’t have a deck.”

“I’ll loan you one, Casey.” Daniele handed it over. Then she pulled hers out and began to play with another person.

I grinned. “You’re going down, Sabrina. And no using magic. That’s cheating.”

Ryan giggled. “You’re the only one who does that, you know?”

“What?”

“Calls me the name of the person I’m impersonating.”

“It’s fun. I’m going to enjoy it. Yes, I know you are Ryan, and you have some amazing makeup skills. But it’s fun. Just tell me if you want me to stop.”

I shuffled and laid down my cards. Then we began our heated game. I won’t detail my triumphant victory because it didn’t happen. I’m not good at that game.

“And Sabrina wins again,” I said as it ended.

“As she does. – And thanks, Casey. This is fun.” Ryan paused, looked around, and leaned closer. “Do you think anyone would care if I wore a girl’s uniform?”

“Do it!” I paused as I recalled things. “Are you transgender? Either way, feel free to experiment. I will stomp anyone who causes an issue. I thought we were past that.”

“People can get weird.” Ryan smiled at me. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Just let me know, girl.” I winked. Then I whispered. “Cast geyser on Ryung-woo!”

Ryan giggled and snuck up. With a wave of arms, glitter rained through the air. “Geyser!”

“Ryan! NO!” Ryung-woo barked.

I laughed hysterically. While hypocritical, it was funny.

Ryung-woo scowled at me. “Casey, stay away from him! You are a bad influence.”

“Another villain struck down!” I said happily. “Nice work, Sabrina!”

“Did you hear about that?” someone asked. “We have magical villains now.”

“It’s terrifying,” another replied.

“We need them registered,” Mike said. “And we need to know how they are doing it. I heard they had to be Vuln natives.”

“That’s why we need to keep an eye out,” Ryung-woo said.

“I don’t know about the Vuln thing,” I said with a shake of my head. “There is magic on other worlds now. That’s why we have the invasions. We all know that.”

“That’s true,” Ryung-woo said. “But keep an eye out.”

“Will do. I do see a magic girl.” I eyed Ryan, who leaned close.

“Can I try ‘she’ and ‘her’ all the time?” she whispered.

“Sure thing.” I grinned at her. “Now, who shall we torment?”

“CASEY HAS A FAMILIAR PLUSHIE TOO?” a sophomore bellowed.

“Daniele! No!” I exclaimed.

“HOW?”

“A gift from family. I didn’t earn it,” I replied.

Ela took offense to that. “That’s a lie! A big fat lie! You did earn it! Now, you need to do me a favor!”

“No!”

“Yes!” She spammed my vision with the quest to turn myself in.

“Stop waving that quest box around!” I reached up and killed it before I got a headache.

“I’m going to try to get that quest,” someone said.

“Want to sell the plushie, Casey?” another asked.

“No way. That was a gift,” I replied. That wasn’t an option. There were way too many memories with that plushie.

“Aw. Well, I’m jealous.”

“Maybe you can get a quest. They are supposed to come at some point,” Daniele said to comfort them.

Mike looked at me. “I just want magic. The conspiracy sites say to get used to mana and kill something.”

“What?” I asked innocently.

“Is it true?”

I shrugged. “It didn’t work for me. So, there’s that.”

“But the fae guys say you are suspicious.”

“She’s not Platinum,” Ryan said. “She was in class when Platinum was helping.”

“Maybe she’s Viper then!” Mike protested. “I can see her playing peek-a-boo!”

Ryan shook her head. “No, she was in class when Viper hit too. We were talking at the same time.”

“Hmm. Then maybe it just means that she’s going to get it,” Dave said.

The room went quiet. I sent a silent curse at the fae. If they blew my cover, I was going to curse them in Faiin until I was blue in the face. It was all their fault that I was on the hot seat.

“That’s why they have the plushies and the fae like them!” Ana shouted. “It makes sense. Oh my god! They are going to be guardians! Can I get your autograph?” She shoved a piece of paper in front of Daniele, which I found hilarious. Now she was stuck with my pain. It was strangely comforting and very hilarious.

Daniele stared at the paper. “What? No,” she lied horribly. Clearly, she’d neglected her deception skill too.

“You are!” Ana said, letting out a happy squeal.

“I’m not! – Casey, stop cackling!” Daniele gave me a pleading look which did not make stomping down my laughter easier.

I forced myself to breathe. “All kidding aside, that would be amazing! I hope so. My last test said incompatible. I can get the results if you want. Daniele’s said the same thing.” I used my impressive deception skills to put them off the scent. Then I powered up my ocular computer.

“Where’s my deception level up?” I asked.

Ela rolled her eyes. “That’s not a thing, Casey. This is not a video game.”

“Well, I should get +1!”

+1 Deception.

You have been inflicted with a curse! -100 to all stats! Visit Guardian Command immediately!

I burst into laughter. Ela had gotten me with that one.

“What’s funny?” Ana asked.

“I’m looking at memes on my ocular computer. But really, we’re not,” I said.

Ana smirked. “To quote the fae, ‘I don’t believe you.’”

“Fine, I’m really Sunshine! Happy?” I asked.

“You are not!”

“Exactly!”

“But you have magic and will be one.” Ana smirked and shoved the paper in front of me.

“I do now!” I grabbed a bag of glitter from Ryan. “SEARING LIGHT!” Then I hit them with a plume of glitter, laughed, and ran off with Ryan. She was fun. We ran around casting spells at everyone, dousing them with handfuls of glitter.

“Separate them!” Ryung-woo yelled as he got hit with another plume of glitter.

“Never, villainous Ryung-woo!” I brandished the glitter in my hands while Ryan stood there giggling her heart out.

Not wanting more glitter all over them, they left us be. I grinned and opted to play another game with my partner in crime. We spent a few hours doing that. It was fun even if I kept losing. After that, I headed home and worked on all my chores.

Current Level 11 Current XP 14.54% Current Max Mana 9375.43 Regen per minute 14.21 Reputation 12000

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 cleans, preserves, 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 2 Free casting

- Cast any spell you can replicate.

- Slotted Spell. Use half the normal cost of the spell to store a single spell for future use. Cast the spell for the remaining cost. Variable cost. Penalty of 8x mana.