Thanks to Maze’s little theatrics, Qull had to completely redo her schedule. That bastard wolf really thought she was in position to make demands like that, she should be thankful to have even found partners for her plans, instead, she was making promises to beat them up in the next few days.

The dog-eared chimera finished dilacerating a choco mint popsicle, spending some time angrily chewing on the wooden stick.

The bad part was that it had worked as Maze intended, Qullqi had gone straight to the mall to get her equipment in order, and she had brought Alana with her to boot. The mercenary managed to finish her business quite quickly, despite having to deal with some monetary loss. Thanks to its strange weather and isolation, Lullaby Island profited a lot from selling everything at high prices when adventurers arrived in spring and then buying low when the groups left as autumn approached.

Alana, meanwhile, was struggling a lot. Half of the stores were too snobbish or advanced to even greet her, while the other half could smell the blood in the water and did everything they could to push bad deals on the witchling. One store, for example, had tried to sell to Alana a crystal disk with a guided meditation audio by a ‘sect master from Wenming' for 150 manas, even if that thing was not a scam, and it probably was, it could still be easily pirated on Prometheus and burned on a cheap C.D. that would cost 5 manas at worst.

The mall’s magical girl merch shop was basically the red-haired girl’s last hope to find anything useful, since it was, well, focused on a younger crowd that enjoyed more whimsy stuff, so perhaps it would help with Alana’s esoteric understanding of magic since whimsical was only some degrees of fanciness away from esoterism.

Or at least that is how Qullqi understood it, both were far away from how she understood magic, through equations and artifices. It was the only way she could perceive it, as someone born without a magical sense, completely unable to perform any spellcasting or produce tangible ethereal energy.

She finished a peanut popsicle and went back to the ice cream stand just across the merch shop. The cashier had a nervous smile as this was already the fourth time she had seen the scowling merch approaching today.

“I will want a lemon one, a strawberry yogurt... Do you have the sweet corn flavour?”

“Corn ice cream?" The clerk tilted her head. “I will check it friend but I make no promises.”

While waiting, Qullqi took the chance to glance towards Alana. She was talking to the cashier of the store, fidgeting with her hair. The store clerk was a young woman with dark make-up and a pentagram pendant, it all contrasted heavily with the standard magical girl inspired pastel pink uniform of the shop. She had an increasingly annoyed look in her face.

It seemed that was another flop, Qull realized and sighed. Then her eyes wandered away from the scene to the many banners and standees displayed. They featured magical girls with cute dresses and wide smiles, it was supposed to feel cheerful but Qullqi felt looked down upon.

Rumi already had her own stuff. But having met her recently, Qullqi noticed they got a lot of details wrong; she was wearing something closer to light blue than turquoise and had a frown instead of that cheeky and discreet small smirk. People seemed to assume quiet types meant brooding personalities.

To the side, in contrast to Rumi being the newest girl on the block, was a poster of Gale Harutori, who had been in the business for about five years, since ‘04, an absurd amount of time considering most magical girls only had their powers for two years at most. To Qull it was the most painful image to look at, the frustration her energetic and sincere smile inspired was a beast of its own, not the anger of being looked down upon by someone smug or conceited, it was the despair of letting down someone who believed in you.

“Hey. Hat girl. I think your friend is getting into an argument.” the ice cream lady poked Qullqi’s shoulder, forcing her out of her brooding.

In the store, Alana had gritted teeth and alert dog ears, her tail swinging in a slow menacing pace. The goth cashier was not impressed.

“Ugh, I already answered as well as I could, but nothing is good enough for ya, master magician. At this point just like, go to the costume store and get yourself a fairy outfit then go frolic among the flowers, cause actual spellcasting doesn’t seem to be for you.”

Clearly that was a sore spot because it made Alana almost jump over to grab the cashier. For someone who Qull had built up as meek and shy, it was impressive to see her so mad for once, though it wasn’t justified, even if the cashier was being rude.

Before things escalated the dog-eared chimera rushed in, grabbed the witch by the collar and pulled her back, stepping in between the two and bowing apologetically to the cashier. To make up for the mess she picked up the two nearest most entry level books and a trinket or two she could repurpose later.

The clerk looked up and down at Qull, and made the merc feel a bit shy, was there something wrong with her outfit? It was a bit of a mess, mixing some combat clothing like heavy duty boots and a shirt with a high collar, along with casual clothing she’d wear at home like her lliklla, her skirt and the somewhat oversized checkered pattern bracelet her father had made for her, thinking his daughters would grow far more than she actually did.

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“Nice outfit.” the cashier said with a smile, catching Qullqi by surprise. “I gotta give ponchos a chance...”

Not bothering with correcting the mistake, Qullqi simply nodded, paid, and grabbing Alana by the wrist, left the store. The witch now had a guilty expression, puppy eyes and all, but it was too late and Qullqi wasn’t even mad, everyone had their sore spots, and she could image the type of pressure Alana had been feeling.

“Hey, sorry for leaving without paying.” she told the ice cream stand lady.

“No worries, it was I who warned you. But what was that about hmm?”

“I...” Alana sighed. “Just got offended, ugh, that store talks about dreams and the power of friendship but all magical girls seem to do is punch and throw energy beams.”

“Pffhahaha.” the clerk laughed loudly. “Oh my. Yeah. A few years ago, I was one. And although I had so much dream magic to use, I never learned anything but to blast away.”

The witch answered with a ‘that is neat’ nod, Qull meanwhile was wide eyed, leaning forward with a wagging tail.

“You were a magical girl!? Who were you?”

“Oh, that would be a breach of NDA. And nevertheless, it's not as glamorous as it sounds. It's more like an unpaid internship, all while you are still at school. Worse even, because at the end of the road you just get fired, and experience with extreme amounts of dream magic isn’t worth much in your professional life.”

Dream Magic was not that different from the engineering term ‘unobtanium’, something to fill the gaps of an otherwise impossible or extremely rare material. Except while the latter was a joke, the former was very much real, if extremely capricious, the name came from the fact the existence of such spells could easily vanish like the memories of a dream when you wake up.

It was not uncommon for mages to use it a bit here and there, especially in more traditional settings, it was useful to help define a spell and very cost effective. Martial Artists in Wenming for example, would declare attack names and shape their powers in flashy ways exactly because such things connected well to Dream Magic.

Only a few however relied on it entirely, as magical girls did. There were many extraordinary dangers that came with that, in one infamous case a girl somehow burned away all the memories of her friends and family for one final attack, and a lot of people on the ethernet made memes about how it wasn’t impossible for one to erase themselves from existence and be impossible to even remember.

Yet, somehow, hearing the very mundane social and economic consequences once those teenager dream spikes died down and one had to retire from being a magical girl felt worse to Qullqi. Existential and abstract dangers were scary but fun, but this was just depressive.

“Uhm, hat girl? Is everything okay? That is quite the frown you have. Heh.”

“Her name is Qullqi, Miss Iro.” Alana answered.

Wait, when did those two get on first name terms?

“Sorry, I got distracted when thinking of my shopping list.” Qull lied.

“Hohoh~ Someone is into magical girls I see. Even ol’ me is enough to make you starstruck?”

“I don’t even know who you are...” But with enough hints, she could probably guess, she knew them all, from the first to arrive in the 60s, to the more recent ones tied to mass media corporations. This realization made her blush a bit.

“Oh, she totally is.” Alana added, amazed for some reason. “But, hmm, now that I think of it, you don’t seem to use any sort of magic.”

Qullqi sighed.

“I can’t sense or use magic really.”

“Eh? Ehhhh.” the witch looked down at herself. “So, you just see me as like, empty floating clothes?”

"No. I can see you, Alana. I can see a lot of things people consider magical, it's just the really pure stuff that I cannot see, the things that are almost entirely etheric. Like the screen of this cash register, it is supposed to show numbers to the client, but I can’t see them.”

“Oh, hope Iro didn’t try to scam you then.” Alana joked.

“She didn’t. Ever since these new screens started to be used, I learned to follow people’s fingers, see what keys they press. In fact, she gave me a little discount, it was supposed to be 34 manas, but she charged 30.”

“A 4₥ discount seems fair enough for such a loyal client.”

“You spent 30₥ in ice cream?” Alana asked with a surprised tone. “That is... wow.”

Qullqi merely clicked her tongue, life was hard as it was, she didn’t need people regulating her snacks.

"Anyway. I think its wonderful that Alana has a whole set of spells she learned from her grandma, few people these days have such a connection with magic." Iro said.

"Yeah, but half of it is just stuff to keep the house and gardens tidy." Alana sighed.

"I am surprised to hear that, that fire spell of yours isn't bad at all."

"I learned that one to heat up teakettles if you'd believe that."

"Lana, if there is anything I learned in these two days since we met, is to take what you say at face value."

“You two get along well for people who just crossed paths.” Iro chuckled. “And you know what? I think you Qullqi, could make for quite a magical girl, if you wanted.”

For a moment the world seemed to stop, old memories surfaced. Back when Qullqi was a hopeful preteen watching such shows, praying for something to happen to free her from mediocrity, wanting an adventure. She struggled to keep that down, she was almost an adult and she already had done many mistakes trying to escape her responsibilities. Even being part of a mercenary squad had been an attempt, and it just ended with them saying she would be a good accountant.

There was no way this could be it, right? She had given up on those words of hope and dreams.

“But I just said I can’t use magic. At least not without operating a previously charged artifice... I couldn’t be a magical girl, right? That is half of the name.” She fished, gulping as she waited for the answer.

Perhaps she could have a familiar or some special device or gem that could make that distant world for once available to her.

“Heh, I think everyone can be a magical girl. Older women, boys, even someone without magic. It's all about the mindset, and you know what friend? You have it.”

“Ahhhhh. I seeeee.” the mercenary forced a smile, otherwise she might say something rude. This type of relativistic bullshit was not what she needed. “Cosplay is a thing these days, maybe I could dress as one someday. Who knows.”

Iro looked worried almost immediately, but it was Alana who spoke first. “You okay Qull? You look a bit weird.”

“Come to think of it, I think I am feeling a little sick. Too much ice cream probably. Maybe I should get ready to go home.”

“Uhm.” Alana gulped. “I think I will stay. Iro seems to know something about magic that seems more in line with the advice I am seeking. Would that be fine?”

“Of course Lana... Funny. We went to so many magical stores but it’s the ice cream stand that has what you needed. Life is funny. Anyway, I don’t think I am well enough to participate in the conversation so I will just wait over there by the window, watching the storm outside. It's a pretty sight. Good luck Alana.”