With her truck currently existing as a pile of loose scrap sprinkled in with the debris of countless other vehicles, Alice was forced to take the slow march home across town, idly peeking down at her phone’s cracked screen from time to time, the silence thick and awkward in the frigid evening air.

  “…so… you intend to just keep ignoring this all, then?”

  “Gah, keep forgetting you’re there.”

  “I try not to make my presence overbearing if at all possible. I’m simply… worried, I suppose.”

  “About what, exactly? The shit from earlier is over now, not much to be worried about now.”

  “I’m not worried about your physical wellbeing, that’s all more than taken care of by our arrangement. I was referring to… the rest. You don’t seem to be taking everything all that well.”

  “Yeah, being told in no uncertain terms that everyone wants me dead now isn’t exactly doing my mental health any favors.”

  There was another long awkward pause, only broken by the sounds the city around them and the bored procession of vehicles occasionally streaming past them, their occupants fleeing the normality of work as they retreated to their own homes in the unlit dusk of the approaching night.

  “Not everyone does.”

  “The only people that don’t hate me are my own eye and someone’s insane aunt, you’re right. I feel so much better now, thanks.”

  “Your sarcasm is uncalled for, I’m only trying to help.”

  “And you did help plenty, by giving everyone a reason to want me dead!”

  “Gods, you really are stubborn.”

  “About the only charm point I’ve ever had going for me, I’m afraid.”

  She flipped her own eye off yet again, still walking forward in the vague direction of her apartment, both of them remaining silent for another long while.

  “…so, like… you got a name?”

  “A name? Of course I have a name, don’t be ridiculous.”

  “Mind sharing it then? If you’re gonna be making yourself comfy in there, I’d like a better way to refer to you than ‘eyeball asshole’.”

  “Hmph. You currently are pying bodily host to the being known as Scgole Islwe Aibanth Lans, your pactbearer and magus without equal.”

  “Sg…goal… aisle… guh, how the hell do you pronounce that?”

  “As I just stated, it is Scgole Islwe Aiban--”

  “I heard you the first time, it just sounds… I’m not gonna fucking remember that all, you got a shorter name? Some kinda nickname or whatever?”

  “Why would I need a nickname? My name is esteemed and noble, like myself, and I take great pride in my personage being correctly addressed by it.”

  Long, unbroken silence, dotted by mumbled attempts at pronunciation, each met with complete failure, the occasional and repeated biting of her tongue only adding to her growing list of grievances as they walked.

  “…Sclera.”

  “Pardon?”

  “That’s what I’m calling you now. Sclera.”

  “That isn’t even remotely close to being my name--”

  “It kinda sounds like that first bit! And you’re an eyeball-thing now anyways, so it fits, y’know? Sclera, like the part of your eyes, rolls off the tongue so much nicer!”

  “I am not an ‘eyeball-thing’, I am an esteemed magus by the name of Scgole Isl-”

  “Yep, heard you loud and clear Sclera.”

  “That is not my name!”

  “I can’t heeeeeeeeeeeear yoooooooooou Sclera~”

  The duo bickered amongst themselves, the occasional random bystander throwing side-eyes at the insane woman talking to herself as they hurried their pace, not wanting to be anywhere close to them as she seemingly spoke to herself, the unlit night ensuring none of them were lucky enough to spot the particurly argumentative toothy maw buried into her right eye socket.

  Time bled past as the two fought over nomencture in the silent night around them, neither of them really paying attention to where they’d been walking until the shrill sound of a siren cut them off, Alice jumping in surprise as she snapped back to attention, her eye panning over her surroundings finally.

  The sound rang out again, and again, a routine rhythm to the sound she eventually identified as a fire truck’s siren, other identical sounds filling the otherwise quiet dusk with ear-piercing noise.

  Alice stepped to the far edge of the sidewalk she was on, peering over the railing at the source of the noise below her.

  Having already walked the vast majority of the distance across town in an unfocused stupor, she now realized where she was.

  Currently, the beaten and battered girl found herself on the highway overpass directly overtop a familiar stretch of town, piles of debris and pools of congealed blood filling multiple craters littered about a previously cozy pocket of town. Firefighters moved from building to building, ensuring the bulk of the destruction had already been halted, as chunks of destroyed robot were loaded into several rger vehicles, presumably for analysis and disposal by the city’s authorities.

  “…damn thing really wrecked the pce, huh?”

  “You say that as if you had no part in the wanton destruction that took pce down there earlier.”

  “Hey, my part was just self defense, it’s the one that started it all.”

  “I suppose you’re correct, even if I’m certain there were less destructive methods of disposal avaible to one less bullheaded.”

  “Great, now you think I’m a menace too.”

  She leaned forward onto the railing, eye fixed on the proceedings taking pce down there, already forgetting that she’d been trying to get home.

  “…I don’t think you’re a menace, Alice. I merely meant…”

  “I know I know, sorry. Just a lot to take in still, is all. Didn’t mean anything by it.”

  “…Your apology is welcomed and returned.”

  “Thanks, I think.”

  The pair stayed there a long while, watching the emergency crews below working to clear the mess she’d left behind, the calming silence only broken by distant voices and running engines.

  “…so… I don’t really watch the news for this kinda stuff that much. Is this… does this happen that often? Just random attacks like this?”

  “It is… not uncommon, no. Hardly an everyday occurrence for most, but the frequency with which these events occur has only risen in recent times. Hence why pact entities such as myself have elected to be more preemptive in our selection of new candidates to become magi--”

  Her left eye snapped to the side, gring daggers at her right.

  “…to become… pact-sharing vessels, for ck of any other term one may use to refer to our current arrangement.”

  “That’s… hm. I had no idea things around here were that bad.”

  “Upholding of normalcy is one of the central reasons magical girls exist, after all. It’s quite intentional that they try to hide these things from the public when possible.”

  “They sure don’t hide the ones they win, at least…”

  “Would you prefer knowing what protectors you do have struggle to contain the horrors they fight against? Or would you prefer being fed promises that their presence is enough to better the world around them? Your average citizen would answer the tter.”

  “Guess that makes me the minority here, then. Can’t stand the idea of being lied to just to stay cozy, life is already shit enough as is.”

  “Little glimmers of hope are a salve to the soul in times of hardship.”

  “Wow, wizard and a poet.”

  “Magus. Not wizard.”

  Alice tried and failed to stifle a chuckle, a tiny smile melting its way through the icy evening air as she ughed quietly at Sclera’s expense.

  “I’m gd your repeated insistence of disrespecting my nomencture seems to have finally cheered you up some.”

  “I’d accuse you of having a stick up your ass if you had one.”

  She finally pushed herself up again, pulling her eye away from the scene below and turning to resume her long march homewards. And in the time one foot could raise itself to step forward, it just as quickly lowered again.

  Neither of them had noticed a second person joining nearby, also watching the commotion below with a concerned and saddened expression on her face. And judging from how she held herself, she also had failed to notice them standing across from her.

  “…I… s-surely they made it out…”

  The other woman wiped a tear from her eyes, a pair of gsses fogged up lightly from the cold, an unassuming jacket wrapped tightly around herself to ward off the chill as she stood there in contemption.

  Not wanting to draw more attention than needed, Alice gingerly stepped forward and around her, taking care not to make too much noise and rouse her from her clearly conflicted thoughts.

  Of course, like any good attempt at being silent for another’s sake, it was immediately foiled by forces outside of her control.

  High-beam headlights racing over the road behind blinded her as they reflected off of rain-soaked buildings around them, the obnoxious honk of a horn demanding others clear out of their privileged way as a polished sports car rocketed along the mostly empty highway. And as it flew on past the trio occupying the overpass walkway, a single, overinfted tire clipped a particurly deep puddle behind them, there was a rush of stagnant old mud capping like the ocean breaking itself on the rocks as it fully and completely doused Alice Decaras, the offending driver never once even bothering to look backwards to witness their horrid and unforgivable crime.

  “Gughh-- hey, you fucking asswipe, get the fuck back here so I can shove your goddamn bumper up your--”

  “Ahem.”

  Sclera snapped her back to attention, the sopping wet dog of a woman snapping her attention back to their previously unaware guest, who was now decidedly aware of the vulgar-tongued guest they had been sharing an overlook with.

  “…fuck.”

  “A-A-Ah, I didn’t notice anyone else was here, I’m s-sorry!”

  The girl covered her mouth her surprise, already rushing forwards to offer her coat to the now depressingly drenched Alice.

  “Here, please, take my coat and--”

  By the time Alice had been given a moment to think, the other girl was already on top of her, no amount of starless evening darkness enough to obscure her features from this distance, the other woman now clearly seeing the previously cleaned tattered rags clinging to her smaller frame underneath the muck sprayed onto her.

  And of course, as her analytical gaze slid upwards faster than Alice’s hand could respond to her neurons firing off, her eyes met the single eye and unmatching toothy mouth across from her mere moments before it was covered by the mud-soaked girl’s hand.

  “N-No, no no, I’m fine, you can keep the jacket really, I’ll just be go--”

  “It’s…”

  She braced for a scream, the only logical reaction she’d have expected from someone seeing teeth framing a hollowed eye socket on someone who already looked as if she’d been pulled out of the dirt only minutes earlier.

  Instead, however, what she was met by was a tackling, crushing hug, the other girl seemingly unperturbed by the amount of muck that would be spread to her clothes by the sudden, seemingly inexplicable embrace.

  “Oh, it’s you! Y-You’re alright, I was so worried!”

  Alice gagged for air, the tiny girl being locked into a vice-like grip as she could feel recently snapped ribs straining against the crushing hug she was now locked helplessly into.

  “Do I… do I know you…?”

  Every word was forced out in a strained gasp, unable to wriggle herself out of her grip as she was squeezed tightly.

  “…oh! Of course, right, you wouldn’t know me dressed like this, ehe…”

  Finally freed from the hug, Alice fell several inches back to the ground from where she was lifted off her feet, the other woman backing up shyly as she only now recognized how off-putting her instant show of concern had been.

  As she stepped back, rather than utter some kind of expnation or apology, she instead doubled over, bending into a ninety degree angle at the waist as she bowed.

  “Thank you so, so, so much for before!!”

  “…eh? Lady, I really do not know who you are at all, you have me confused with someone else.”

  “N-No, I recognize you! That… whatever happened with your eye, I saw it before when you helped me and freed my leg!”

  Her mind went into overdrive, memories flooding past as she tried to piece together any kind of idea of who this strangely energetic person could have been, steam pouring from her ears until one possible identity finally slotted neatly into pce.

  “…wait, are you that magical girl from earlier?”

  She bolted back upright, beaming as brightly as those headlights earlier had been shining, her earlier anxiety tucked aside as relief filled in the space it left behind.

  “Yes! I-I had been worried if you made it out alright after you helped me, so I came back and… there was just, so much blood, I’d just assumed…”

  “Oh… uh, yeah, fair assumption to make, yeah.”

  She smiled with a tooth-rotting sweetness, head cocked ever so slightly to the side as earlier tears stained her cheeks behind her gsses.

  “I’m just so new to this all still, s-so… I don’t know all my seniors yet, so I didn’t know your name or anything, o-or who I’d even ask to check on you, or anything so… s-so I’m gd you came back after all!”

  “Uh, happy to… be predictable, I guess? Also, what do you mean ‘seniors’, I haven’t been in a school in years now.”

  “Oh! No no, I meant more like, um… I-I’m still learning the ropes as a magical girl is all, and am still hoping to learn a lot from a-all of the talented and experience magical girls like you!”

  “…eh?”

  “And, um, if it’s not too much trouble, I’d… um, I-I’d like to request, if it’s alright, maybe you could give me some kind of… g-guidance on this all?”

  “Wait, wait wait wait wait, I think you’ve got the wrong idea here dy. I’m not trying to shut you down here or anything, but--”

  She stepped in uncomfortably close again, an unfamiliar determined expression burned into her teary features now as she spoke up to her savior.

  “I-It’s alright if you refuse, but… I-I don’t know how to do any of this, and I don’t want any one else getting hurt because of me, so please, miss, take me on as your apprentice!!”

  Every st functioning neuron in Alice’s particurly thick skull fizzled and sputtered out one by one, every thought she’d managed to have since encountering this woman in front of her stomped out like an unwanted campfire, the final thing out of her lips punching clean through her as it broke the dam holding her final shreds of coherence in.

  “…eh? Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?!”

  Her hands were clenched tightly in that same iron grip that had nearly re-broken her ribs earlier, eye staring bnkly forward at the unshakable gaze boring into her, feeling as if she was watching a puppy unthinkingly beg for the boiling water off the stove.

  Her mouth opened and closed several times, no words brave enough to spill out from the orifice, only managing vague noises of confusion, disbelief, and genuine amazement at how unashamedly she’d been asked of something she could not possibly even fathom how to provide.

  “S-So? Could you teach me to be all b-brave like you were, even just a little? I’d appreciate a-anything at all, really!”

  “I… I, um… look, I really don’t know how to say this, but--

  “Alice.”

  “--I don’t have anything I can, like… I don’t even know how to--”

  “Alice…!”

  “--deal with anything like… whatever any of this is supposed to be--”

  “Alice, listen!”

  “--so you'd be better off just… eh? What, I’m talking here, can’t you shut it for five fucking seconds?”

  “Move…!”

  Her limbs lurched forwards on their own, Sclera once more briefly taking control of their shared body as her knees bent, straightening again just as quickly as she was unched forward, carrying the other girl along with her as she leapt forwards a short distance, both of them nding on their sides and sliding a short ways across the cold pavement beneath them.

  “E-Eeek!”

  “Guh…! Asshole, what’re you--”

  She was cut off once more, though instead of the harried voice of her pactbearer, this time it was by the increasingly familiar sound of crashing, scraping metal, the duo only just managing to dive below the path of a sports car, high-beam headlights still cutting through the evening air, as it was unched through the air, crashing and tumbling down the road behind them, arms bring like the sounds of a dying animal.

  Alice’s attention jerked back upwards, scanning in the direction of the massive projectile, quickly finding several things she’d been too preoccupied by the overload of emotional pleas from the girl next to her to notice.

  The car’s driver who had just earlier sprayed her with several days worth of accumuted street muck was fleeing as fast as their legs would take them, tumbling repeatedly as they retreated off past their totaled vehicle in an attempt to find anywhere at all safer than here.

  Several other ravaged and abandoned vehicles lined the road ahead, more and more civilians fleeing in either direction, any way they could get away, the sounds of panic growing more and more distant as it was drowned out by hustle and bustle of the cleanup crew on the road below.

  And fixated squarely in the center of the sudden rising commotion, was a sight that already had her blood boiling out of her veins again.

  “…oh, I’m already getting real sick of seeing you.”

  In the center of the highway overpass ahead of them, glistening in the light of twisted and broken streetmps, was a towering metal construct, two long, slender, bded limbs attached to a reflective carapace, topped off with the head of a praying mantis that was currently staring directly at the pair of them.