Belle Noblesse had filled up her thousandth mana battery for the day. Counting each one as they passed through her hands helped the time go by faster and took her attention off from the prattling voice of the woman next to her. Tiffany...

“So Becky is like, do you know who you’re talking to? And I’m like, well, I think I do, so she tells me that the woman on the other line is the cousin of the line manager for corridor four. Like, I don’t know if its my fault if she’s insulted that I cussed her out, but the banchi was being rude. So I tell her, sorry wrong number and I thought that was the end of that, but…”

Belle's mind drifted off from what the other girl was saying.

...I get a call in the morning from my line manager, and I can tell that she knows, but she can’t do anything because they’d have to admit they bug the phones, so she just asks me why I’m late to work. I work late morning shifts on Tuesday, because Tuesday night is Sally’s doctor appointment time, I traded with her so she comes early in my place and I stay late . I told my manager, but you know she’s a total banchi, and she’s like, I don’t care, come to work or it’s a demerit. I had to go, but I feel sorry for Sally because she had to miss her appointment, but, like, I didn’t want another demerit since I already have two and once you get three, they suspend your pay for a week. I mean, it makes sense why they would do that to other girls, because they can’t shut their mouths and get work done, but I’m one of their most productive battery girls. Just last month I filled up almost 1000 batteries in one day, that was like almost a record for me, but of course I still get it because I’m part Lodinololian, if you can’t tell. Where are you from, your blond hair is so pretty, if I had to guess, I’d say your family is either from Windsora or part Imperial, but you know I don’t judge either way. I dated a guy who said he was part imperial once. He had the most blue eyes you’d ever seen, they were so yummy, but its too bad he was such a tool. He started off nice, but then he told me he wants a traditional girl, and like yuck, three children. I mean, we had only been dating for six months when he just springs this on me, so creep alert, weird, weird, weeeeird, and I’m like, I don’t want kids. Don’t tell anyone, but I kind of hate them, haha, but its not my fault they’re just so ugly, like snotty, crying potatoes. Well, I tell him and he’s like, that’s ok, I love you for who you are, not what you can give me, but I think I’d already moved on from him emotionally at that point, so I dumped him. His friend was better looking anyway, but can you blame someone if they’re just feeling smothered? People really need to learn to take a breath and just chill. Speaking of, did you hear about Lin? I heard that she got into it with Jesse in the showers. You’d think Jesse would snap Lin with those meat arms of hers, but Lin is like a super mana user, like probably been here longer than anyone else and she just snapped her fingers and froze all the water from the showers and Jesse in place. It’s no wonder that she’s not a manager yet if all she does is just get in fights all the time. I thinks she’s just a bitter bird that she’s not a magical girl, but hello, its magical girl, not magical old hag. Did I already say that I think your hair looks cute by the way? How did you get it done like that or does it curl naturally? Mine just goes all over the place, but I found a good product that keeps it in place. Do you use product? I mean, not that I think you look like you do, but the sheen is just too good that you don’t. I try to mix it up, product one day and just water the next. My girl said that its better for the roots that way, but I’ve been told that it doesn’t really do nothing anyway. Oh! Did you see the latest episode of Magical Girl Soul Slayer last night? I swear, that show almost makes me want to read about the real thing, the way that Callie Casanov just potrays Fiona with such passion. Did you know Callie isn’t even a Magical Girl, I know there was a rumor years ago, but I dated a guy whose cousin worked in the industry and he told me that Callie does not even do her own stunts, but I mean who could though, but it was so cool last night when Fiona just strolled into the Emperor’s throne room and threw her sword right next to his face. I mean, I know it is probably not realistic, but just the way that jerk almost wet himself was so funny. I just hate Imps, after what those jerks did, its such a shame that people have to hate other people, but I guess we all just have to do our own thing and get along. It just makes me so sad when people are mean, but you just have to roll it off and keep going. But you know what I mean when you just can’t get where people are coming from, like I can’t believe there are people out there who don’t like the Queen. Bless her soul and ME-GO too, but I had this one crazy conspiracy uncle, total outer colony whack job, and he thinks that the golem are used to spy on people, which is absurd, because, hello, if I had a golem then I’d be a magical girl and not working some dead end job, but I cut him off after what happened on Apophyllion. He kept insisting it was an inside job and I would have told him to shut up, but I’m kind of a quiet person, so I’ve just blocked him on all my media. But you know better, you were there after all and it must have been so, so, so scary, but I watched some of the videos and the way you took down that Kort, it was just like when Fiona slew the Battle Lord Kelzen’s eidolon on MGSS, but like, real life. Oh, have you tried shorty and sandy at town? I usually don’t make it out on the weeknends, I have to pick up other people’s slack, but I love it there. They have the strangest drinks, and it was not good, you know when they do too many things, it was too unique, something with a coconut, and it tasted funny, but like its just straight sugar, so I was not expecting a lot, but its still really good and the service is good. That reminds me of another thing that’s on my list to do is get off planet. I have a pass, but you know during the attack on Apophyllion, things got real crazy, and I got stuck here, but you know, that’s life, I was a little frantic about it, but I was like, there’s nothing I can do about it, and I tried to not overthink it and just let it pass over, but it was so annoying. It’s ridiculous that something happening on the other side of the galaxy can just really make a rainy day here. It made me stress eat, which is not something I normally do, but I couldn’t help it. My dad had high cholesterol, or he has, he’s not dead, but yeah, I’ve always been a little afraid that I would too, so I watch what I eat, but I have an occasional cheat day, because if you just eat nothing but water and vegetables then you’re just going to break down and chow down and just totally ruin whatever progress you’ve made. It’s like, I don’t get how people can just, you know, focus. I’m like a little bird, a little here, a little there, but some people are just like drills, like you Liara, I don’t get how you can fill so many batteries so fast, but it’s like something I totally respect, because its something I wish I could do and I know I can do better, like ‘girl, you got this’, but then I get on the floor and I’m just bored out of my mind. Maybe it’s because you’re Magical Girls? Do you think that helps? I wanted to be one too, duh, but I think they passed me up because of the whole race thing, Londies are always getting looked down on, but maybe if I had a golem too I could fill up batteries super fast. What’s his name again, Pellas? How come he doesn’t come out anymore, he was such a cute little guy. I mean, sure, he looks like a giant, robot spider, but once you get past all the legs and eyes, he’s so adorable. If I had a golem, I’d want him to be a dog. I just love dogs, when I was growing up, we had three. A weiner dog, a retriever, and some sort of mix that my dad adopted. The weiner dog, Ms. Sparkles was mine, and she was just the cutest thing you ever saw. Dad gave her to me when I was three and if you saw this pictures, you’d think we looked so cute together. She would bite anyone who tried to get close to me, she was real protective, but eventually she got old, sad, and I had to put her down. It wasn’t like she was blind or couldn’t walk or anything, but I could just tell you know. You know when you know, but I was still so sad. It was an amazing sixth birthday though with the new puppy though. Another weiner dog, of course, and I named this one Mr. Cupcake. So, hmm, I guess if I got a golem, I’d name him after both dogs, Cupcake Sparkles? Sparkling Cupcake? Whatever, I’d just be so happy to get one in the first place, but you know, I’ve been working here for three years now and I still have not gotten the offer. But is it really worth it though? I can throw a punch if I need to, but the idea of fighting a Yabanchi is kind of scary. Were you guys scared when you had to fight them? It must have been scary, seeing those creepy things crawling all over the place, but I’ve thankfully only seen them once on my freshman orientation trip. Where did you girls go for your freshman trip? I went to a planet called Lake Silver. Like seriously, I mean it, Lake Silver, as in the whole planet was named that, but I think they called it that since there were just miles and miles of giant pools of mercury on the planet. Anyway, we didn’t go down to the planet, even if the armor they lent us would have been protection from the fumes. We went to a space station over Lake Silver. Now, hush-hush, it was kind of a secret mission, spy satellites and all, but I got to see Dana Cole herself in action. She and her husband, I forget his name, they really took it to some giant slug that was siphoning energy from the station’s reactor. I mean, I almost wish that I was more attuned to earth mana, but I’m not just a basic banchi, I should show you my knife hands one of these days. Oh, man, isn’t it so sad what happened to Dana’s husband too? He was such a sweet guy, I’ll really miss him. Oh oh, speaking of big lugs, here comes Jesse."

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The lights over Belle's head started to make a noise only she heard. A droning buzz. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. An hour did not fly by, but flowed, like sludge down a pipe and as Belle thought it could not get any worse a rough voice snapped her back to reality. "What are your numbers?"

"Oh, hey Jesse!" Tiffany beamed at the thick woman who was glaring at their group, Belle in particular. "I think I filled eight hundred."

Jesse's eyes almost disappeared in the folds of fat on her face as she rolled them. She grunted at Belle, "You?"

"Thirteen hundred."

Another snort and another eye roll, "Figured you'd do better than that, Princess."

"It meets my quota."

"Sure, the bare minimum I guess. Not a good look for someone so noble as a Noblesse."

Belle bit her tongue at her Line Leader's remark. Speaking up last week had only earned her a demerit and a foot tangling her up in the lunch line last week. It had been less than a month at this forsaken auxiliary mana camp and Belle had already garnered no less than three nicknames and a humiliating routine of being talked down to at work every single day except the weekends. Even then, no one wanted to be her weekend pass buddy except for loud mouth Tiffany. Liara would have been a much preferred alternative, but she always chose to sleep in on the weekends.

[Punch that piggy's lights out.]

[Yeah, sure, Cassandra, random acts of violence always work out in the end.]

[Pssh, you got the stats.]

"Hey, are you talking to that golem? Come out here cat!" Jesse started snapping her fingers in Belle's face like that would make Cassandra materialize faster. The golem did as she was ordered, but she did it as slow as possible and only made the line leader madder.

"Didn't I say that you can't talk to her during work hours? No wonder her numbers are low, she is getting distracted from her work by you!"

"See here, human. I do not take orders from you. Put your fat fingers in my face again and I will answer back with appropriate discipline."

"Discipline eh? Looks like you just earned a demerit, Princess."

"What, I didn't even do anything!?"

"Excessive talking during work hours." Jesse already had out her clipboard and was writing down the demerit. "Turn in a pink slip into my office before opening tomorrow. I want two thousands words explaining why you won't let your chitter chatter with the cat get in the way of work again." Jesse started to turn around and go back to her office, but Liara finally spoke up.

"Excuse me, you didn't count my numbers."

Jesse stopped and looked over her shoulder. "What are they this time?"

"Three thousand two hundred and sixteen."

With a flap of her hand, Jesse went back to walking away and said, "Whatever. Get back to work then."

Belle bit her tongue and searched Liara's face for any hint of outrage at Jesse's bullying, but the red eyed girl wasn't looking at that fat jerk, she was staring at Belle!

"Are you ok?" Liara asked.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"I just know what it's like to be singled out. We're here for you if you need us." Liara gestured at herself and Tiffany and gave a small smile that was meant to be comforting. It was anything but.

Another couple of hours went by of filling mana batteries and listening to Tiffany yak and then the workday finally ended. Tiffany had tried inviting Belle to dinner with her and Liara, but Belle brushed that off real quick and escaped into the narrow corridors that connected the various buildings of the Windsora Mana Manufactorum. Thousands of mana empowered women lived here, some of them of noble blood like herself, but only Liara and Belle were Magical Girls. Or at least they used to be ones.

After Liara turned down Selanora's offer a second time, Belle had made an announcement to the people she cared about that she would also be fulfilling her duty in the Mana Manufactorum. She had only told Liara and her mother and they had both had similar reactions. INDIFFERENCE!

Belle reached the small outdoor alcove she had discovered in her nighttime haunts. Hardly anyone ever came here, so it was perfect for what she needed. Belle's mana sword materialized in her hands and she started swinging it. One, two, three, four......a thousand and then another thousand more. She just had to swing it. Again and again. The roiling pit of anger and anxiety in her stomach could not be quenched any other way.

If the managers found out she was using her powers to materialize the weapon, ME-GO help her if Jesse saw, then Belle would probably get in a world of trouble, but that fat pig could go to-

"Belle?"

Belle stopped swinging her sword mid-air and clenched her jaw. She had been discovered and though it wasn't one of the managers, it was probably the last person she wanted to see right now.

"Belle, it's almost 12. What are you doing out here?"

"I'm fine, Liara, I'm just working out."

Liara looked over her shoulder, like they were in some conspiracy meeting together. "You shouldn't be materializing that here. What if they catch you?"

"They haven't yet."

Stepping up closer to Belle, Liara did something unexpected. She materialized her mana spear and asked, "Mind if I join you then?"

"What, Holzer let you keep his spear?"

"He said he wouldn't need it anymore."

"Ah." Holzer was Belle's paladin, but Belle was technically not a Magical Girl anymore, so he technically was not a paladin. Seeing this, the Navy had swooped in and made him a Mana Marine of all things. Seeing Holzer get stripped of his title and dignity was just another thing on the big bonfire of dissatisfaction raging in Belle's heart. It was all Liara's fault.

No.

Liara had no idea. As far as that girl knew, Belle had just gone crazy and quit alongside her. It was her own stubborn pride that kept Belle from telling Liara the truth, but she'd rather fall into the eternal void than buckle and start blabbing about her bet with Selanora. So it was, that Liara started jabbing the air alongside Belle, each girl venting for reasons different enough to be their own but from similar thoughts bubbling beneath the surface.

Liara wanted to tell Belle something too. About Cassandra telling her and Pellas about Belle's bet as they rushed said blonde girl to the hospital after she fainted. She full well knew that Belle was only there because of her, but she did not know how she was supposed to fix Belle's problem. The only way she saw how was rejoining the fight against the Yabanchi as a Magical Girl, but she couldn't even think of that as a possibility with the way she still had nightmares at night. No, she had decided to keep her mouth shut and let the charade go on. Filling mana batteries wasn't that bad. Hopefully Belle would learn to see that too.

The two girls kept up their fight against the shadows on the alcove wall, but their foes dodged every hit, and grew longer as the night went on.