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The console was old, but a video game was a video game. Even if it didn't have any 3D graphics, the controller didn't have any joysticks, and all of the games were in English, having to play on his dad's old gaming system was better than being stuck with books.

On the positive side, Yoshi and his sisters had always had better grades in the foreign language than most of their peers. Sure, part of that was Marcus' tendency to switch to it whenever he was feeling lazy, but it was just as much to the credit of the device he had passed to his children.

And, hey, retro was in, so it was a great lure to get a couple friends to come over to his place when the arcade wasn't open. They had to stick to low-text games like beat-em-ups and racers, though, since the machine was region-locked. Even though they could buy games for the same console locally, this specific one would stubbornly refuse to run them.

Yoshi paused the platformer he was playing when he heard his sister coming down the stairs, and he pulled himself up to look over the sofa. "Hey, Sis, wanna play a few rounds?"

He knew the answer before she gave it to him; Riko was dressed to head out. "I'd love to, Yosh," she replied apologetically, "but I already made plans with Haru. And I've still got to pick up something for dinner tonight."

Yoshi's eyes lit up and he stood a little straighter as his stomach growled eagerly. "Can we have hamburgers again?"

That put a grin on his sister's face. "Sure, I can manage that. But, hey, I can make them a different way than on bread. You interested in trying something a bit different?"

Then he frowned. "How different?" He knew he liked hamburgers, and the ones she had made last week had been really good, with big patties and double cheese. She even made fries that were curly! It had been so good that he didn't even mind they had the girly yogurt called parfait for dessert.

But different? Different was dangerous.

"Instead of a sandwich, it's served with gravy," she explained. "Instead of a hamburger sandwich, it's called a hamburger steak! I could make it beside poutine!"

Now, he was really frowning. "Poutine sounds nasty."

But she was grinning all the more. "You remember those fries you liked so much?"

His middle sister was starting to look more and more like a super-villain in his eyes. "Uh-huh? What kind of horrible thing are you going to do to them?"

"I top them with shredded cheese and more gravy!"

"That's a lot of gravy!"

"Just a thin layer over the whole dish," she insisted. "Trust me, you'll like it! But say the word, and we'll just keep it regular hamburgers again."

Yoshi murmured and fidgeted as he puzzled through his dilemma. "I guess we can try it ..."

"Great! I gotta go! Remember to lock the door behind you if you head out, okay?"

"I won't forget!"

He settled back down in front of the television again as the door shut behind Riko, and he unpaused the game. The conversation left him with a question that wasn't just about the food, though.

Who was Haru? He thought he knew her whole circle of friends, they certainly hung out enough. Was it someone new?

As the level got harder, he quickly decided he didn't care, and paid the question no further thought.

* * *

The brunette flipped through her messages for what felt like the millionth time. She was leaning against a pillar at the strip mall waiting for the blonde to arrive. Haru should have been there half an hour ago, it's what they agreed to.

Not only was she still waiting, but she'd yet to receive any message about a delay.

Half an hour was long enough. She cleared out the message window and pulled up the phone app to tap her most frequently used number.

... It was Homura? No, that wasn't right. She talked with Red a lot about sparring, sure, but she definitely talked to Haru more. Maybe not over the phone, just over messages?

She furrowed her brow as she went over to her Contacts page manually and scrolled to the C's.

That was weird, did she accidentally delete it? No big deal, she knew it by heart by now, anyway.

Quickly, she went through the steps of adding it back in, then dialed it.

The phone rang longer than she would have liked, but, thankfully, it picked up just when the brunette was starting to panic.

... Except it wasn't Haru.

"... Hello?" a strange woman's voice asked. "Who is this?"

"I'm sorry," she replied, "I'm trying to call my friend, Haru Chiaki? This is supposed to be her number."

There was a short pause, probably the woman trying to place the name. "I'm sorry, sweety, but this is my number, and I can't think of anyone by that name. Maybe you misdialed."

She thanked the woman for the consideration and hung up, then pulled the contact back up and double-checked.

... No, the number was accurate. That was Haru's number.

That was when a sinking feeling began to freeze her belly, and she quickly dialed Miss Sada instead.

Unlike the stranger, Sarasa picked up halfway through the third ring. "Miss Kelly! To what do I owe the pleasure of a week--"

"He took Haru!" It was all the brunette could do not to shout into the phone.

There was another pause. "... Who?"

"What do you mean, who?! The Arbiter!"

"I ... guessed that much, dear, but--"

"Don't you fucking dare, Sada!" The brunette nearly screamed before she could catch herself, remembering that she was in a public place. "Not about her! Whatever he's done to her, Haru's gone!"

Despite herself, the brunette was starting to tear up, and at least the sniff made it over the line, because Sada's whole tone changed.

"Oh, dearie, I'm sorry! Don't cry! Just ... hold on, give me a moment ..." There was a pause and the sound of shuffling that went on for a dozen seconds or so. "Yes, yes ... okay ... I think we need to have a meeting. Miss Kelly, where are you now?"

"I'm at the strip mall." Somehow, her voice sounded small to her. She made an effort to clear her throat, and tried again with what felt like better success. "Strip mall. Haru was supposed to meet me here half an hour ago."

"Stay put," Sarasa replied. "I'll come pick you up."

* * *

The school bell rang as students milled about inside the building as if it were any other school day. Which, on a Saturday, was a massive red flag.

They had first intended to go to the soda shop, but the Homuras were closed for maintenance. It wasn't until they arrived at the school that they realized they'd been set up all along.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Natsumi ground her heel into the sidewalk with her anger. "Not only did this bastard kidnap Chiaki, erase her from our memory, and try to kill Kelly, but he's making everyone come to school on a Saturday?!"

Ran adjusted her glasses before attempting to correct her friend quietly. "Priorities. Haru is still in danger. We have to save her."

A minute earlier, they didn't even know who Haru was, but when that was about to make the brunette blow a gasket, Sada interceded. She had apparently already restored her own memory, and, declaring explanations too exhausting to bother with, she willed some sort of concentric circles with nodes into the air in front of her.

The brunette couldn't help but think it looked rather like a file structure as she watched the fifth-dimensional being manipulate it with one hand like one might a dial. Before she could say a thing on the matter, however, Sarasa had hushed her with a wink and the index finger of her other hand held to her lips.

The next moment, all of the other Witches remembered their missing member and Natsumi started stomping.

Now, they were talking about how to approach the whole "school in session" issue. Miss Sada assured them that this was all effectively in a sort of super-seal, so anything that happened wouldn't matter. Even anything that happened to the students would be able to be undone. Their only value as hostages was psychological.

The brunette started walking when Tamashini expressed concern about going in with their casual attire. Like Dakunaito probably would have said, talk like that is a sure sign nothing else productive was coming.

"Kelly?" the school president called after her in all too familiar words. "Where are you going?"

This time, she didn't even turn back to give a response. After all, there was only one uniform needed in a war zone.

She raised a hand toward the doubled up set of double doors, reinforced against intrusion and filled with bulletproof glass for the safety of the students.

The fireball tore through them like a bomb.

Some students ran, most screamed, but those that did neither stared at the golden-clad figure that stepped through the smoke and debris.

And then they began to cry out, too, writhing and clawing at their faces that seemed to melt down into themselves. The next moment, they were dretches.

Sword Witch scowled at the scene before her. "Psychological, she said."

And then they charged, for all of the good it did them. Golden light flashed into her hand as she carved through them mid-leap, and she charged off down the hallway.

"Did ..." Natsumi pointed after the disappearing figure. "Did she just transform without a chant?!"

"She doesn't transform," Ran pointed out meekly.

"I know, but it still looks so wrong!"

"The transformation pen is set up to activate with the chant, just like a regular transformation," Reina put in. "Even if it isn't a true transformation, she must have changed the setting somehow."

"Or maybe she's just that pissed," the redhead countered, but before Miss Sada could scold her for her language, she charged forward, too, red flame licking from her fingers. "Hey, wait for us! TRANSFORM!"

* * *

Hisoka's breath tore at her chest as she ran down the school's long hallways.

She didn't know why she was there. She had been absolutely certain it was supposed to be Saturday. But everyone else was there, too, and none of them thought it was odd. She couldn't seem to find her president, however.

But then everyone turned into freakish monsters. Some instinctive part in her told her they were dretches, even though that shouldn't have meant anything to her. It didn't seem to mean anything to them, either, as they immediately attacked anyone that wasn't one of them.

Which basically meant her entire classroom jumped her. Somehow, she'd made it out of the room unscathed, but the hallways were full of the monsters, and she'd been running ever since.

The only logical explanation for the madness was that she was stuck in a nightmare. It met all of the points of the definition: Indistinct time, a sense of misplacement ... terrifying monsters. Except she was aware of it. She never had lucid dreams. But then, she didn't actually know it was a nightmare, either. Does suspecting it count as being aware of it?

All she knew was that, whatever the case, she could be counted on to screw it up.

This self-absorbed line of thought led inevitably to her rounding a corner right into one of them. She screamed even as her body twisted, grabbing it by the shoulder and arm as she took it to the ground with her, smashing it face-first into the tile floor.

Hisoka gave it a kick to the head for good measure and skittered backward, only to yelp when she bumped into another figure, but when she looked up, she saw ...

"Mr. Sato!"

The dreamy math teacher (strangely, she recalled him being much older, but couldn't remember why and it contradicted everyone she brought it up with) was fending off the monsters with a yardstick held like a bokken.

He looked down at the sound of his name and his eyes widened. "Miss Cho. Stay behind me. We will try to reach an exit."

She nodded and scurried back to her feet.

She'd made it to the cafeteria somehow, but instead of a wide, open space, the two were surrounded on all sides by the monsters. Sato tried valiantly to keep them at a distance with his yardstick, but with so many, it was only a matter of time before ...

"Kyaaa!"

One grabbed Hisoka by the arm, and before she could think how to react, she wheeled around and slapped the thing.

It nearly took her arm with it as it went shooting across the room, bowling over half a dozen others before colliding with the far wall in a loud crash.

Even the dretches paused in their assault at such a display, and Cho stared dumbly down at the offending hand, flexing it in disbelief.

Of course. If this really was a dream, it'd make perfect sense for that to come back, wouldn't it?

She planted her feet with much more confidence, even though she wasn't any taller. "My strength is coming back! I can fight with this!"

"Strength?" the teacher repeated, staring at the crater in the wall. He turned his gaze back to his student. "... Miss Cho, were you ... cursed?"

Her eyes widened as she looked back up at him. "You, too?!"

Mr. Sato focused his attention forward again and redoubled his grip on the yardstick. "It can be no coincidence that only we Cursed were not changed. Yet I dare not attempt to use it. But a moment ago, these were my precious students!"

Hisoka narrowed her eyes, something deep inside of her telling her that her words were true. "Whatever they were, these things aren't students."

That same feeling must have been within him, because he took on the same expression. "Dretches," he spat in disgust, and flame leaped up the length of the yardstick without consuming it.

"As impressive as I find your resolve," a new voice interceded, and despite the return of her oni strength, the deceptively normal sound filled her with unbridled terror, "you can't expect those bumbling imbeciles to hold them for long."

The man was beautiful, standing there in alien robes, but as he reached a hand out toward them, all she wanted to do was run. Her feet, however, were cast in metaphorical concrete.

"Don't you think it's about time you tools got into costume?"

Mr. Sato and Hisoka both began to scream as their bodies betrayed them, and against her will, Cho felt hers begin to swell.

* * *

"PREZ!"

"DESTROY ... WITCHES!!!"

"Oh no ..."

The girls stopped short at the sight of a bouncing blue oni who was waving her arm above her head, joyously trying to get Sacred Witch's attention, and the cross of a chess rook forged of metal bricks and the arms of a scale, bashing the area around him as if the limb were a flail.

"Seriously?!" Sword Witch's reaction to the sight was far different from Reina's, full of frustration rather than dread and sorrow. "A boss rush?! Now?! Does this guy want us here or not?!"

"He wants the status quo returned." Sarasa landing on the brunette's shoulder was possible because of her smaller cat form. "He may have his own grand plan waiting in the wings, but he is fully satisfied with the old-fashioned solution of simply forcing the loop to reset."

But the brunette was looking between the two protodemons present. Wasn't he skipping some? If the Arbiter was willing to throw two of them at the girls at once ...

She wheeled toward Natsumi. "Flame Witch, watch out for--!"

The redhead looked up just in time to jump away as a shadowy figure clad in samurai armor came crashing down from the rafters.

"You!" Flame Witch shouted as it seemed to crack its neck. "We purified that armor! Why are you back?!"

"We purified the rest of them, too," Sacred Witch pointed out. "The Arbiter clearly used his powers to restore their curses."

As the protodemons began their attack, Shield Witch stayed behind the front line, quickly alternating barrier casts to protect her teammates. "How is this not an interference violation?"

"The inside of the seal here is temporally desynchronized," Miss Sada explained. "Nothing happening here is actually happening to the timeline." She jumped from Sword Witch's shoulder a moment before the brunette deflected a sudden wooden fist flying in on a string.

"Hello, Marione," Sword Witch greeted the childlike puppet. "I was starting to think you weren't going to make it."

The protodemon gave a stilted but cheerful wave back as the first fist retracted, then sent the other one in.

The brunette considered their worsening condition as she ducked under the attack. Without Haru, the girls were matched four to four by the protodemons, enemies rarely able to be handled by a single Witch.

Worse, their battle line was a mess. The armor was determined to harass Natsumi, who should have been fighting Sato for the greatest effectiveness. Reina was best able to handle Hisoka, who was joyfully whacking her kanabo anywhere it seemed to make the biggest mess, but she was instead entangled - thankfully not literally yet - with the algebra teacher. The only one remotely doing their tactical best was Ran.

But their stamina wasn't infinite. Every spell brought them closer to burn-out, and they had no idea how long this would take, or how much power they would need for whatever the Arbiter had planned.

She, herself, could now deal with nearly any of the individual protodemons present with a single strike, but her mind screamed at her about the tactical disadvantages. Which one would she even pick? Could she afford the expenditure? She wasn't any more resistant to it than they were.

"DARKNESS CRUSHER!!!"

The black figure came crashing down on the armor with the force of a plummeting elephant, sending its pieces flying in every direction.

"Dakunaito?!" Sword Witch spun toward the sight as she jumped out of the way of another attack from Marione.

The other protodemons hesitated, as well, and Hisoka gasped with recognition. "It's you! You're the one who ..."

The black knight stood from the wreckage with the shifting sounds of his plates, his baleful red eyes glaring out from within his helmet.

"For one who would call himself a Conqueror," he spoke without seeming to address anyone in particular, "the best tactic is often forward. If you must always have a gimmick for victory, you will freeze when one does not present itself."

As usual, he was right, she realized. She was hung up on looking for a vulnerability to exploit, and they were wasting energy for it.

Without further thought, she used two hands to channel a double-speed fireball and launched it into Marione's midsection. She always felt a little bad tearing the childlike protodemon apart, but the best place to start was with her own opponent.

"Red, get on Sato! Prez, your fangirl's going into Notice Me mode again! Get her under control!"

As soon as she finished barking orders, she charged through the opening. "I'll give you all thirty seconds to catch up, then I'm going on without you!"