"Wait, don't do anything r—" I held my hands up in a panic.

  The hing I khe hallway lit up in a fsh of pink light, and my body lurched backwards as a pink blur smmed into me.

  My back hit the wall of the corridor as Ichigo tackled me, ing her arms tightly around my ned pulling me close into a hug. The force of her tackle had khe wind out of my lungs and I gasped for air, my vision spinning slightly as she picked me up in a squeeze.

  "W-whoa, easy. E-easy!" I hacked, struggling to breathe.

  "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! You're here, and you're okay! And I didn't even know it was you this whole time!" she cried, her voice filled with joy as she squeezed me tightly.

  Her cat ears tickled the sides of my fad ned she pulled back to look me in the eyes.

  "Are you okay?! Oh, gosh. Of course you're okay, you're right here!" She excimed.

  "'t... breathe..." I rasped, struggling to breathe as she hugged me.

  "Huh? Oh. Ohh, right, duh," she mumbled, loosening her grip and droppio my feet. She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, adjusting the athletic crop top she'd summoned.

  I took a deep breath and shook my head.

  "Ehehehe, sorry," she mumbled, rubbing her neck as she fshed me a fanged grin. "I guess I got carried away a bit. It was just really surprising seeing you here and all. I mean... I knew you got hurt pretty badly, so I was really worried."

  "I-I'm alright. Thanks, though," I replied as I got to my feet and dusted myself off. I took another deep breath a out a soft exhale before looking back up at her with a warm smile.

  "It's... o see you too, Strawberry. I'm gd you're alright too."

  She blushed and smiled, nodding shyly.

  "Y-yeah. It is."

  The hallway was quiet for a moment, the two of us just standing there awkwardly as I looked at her. She seemed to be lost in thought as she looked at me with an unreadable expression. I could tell that there were a millioions on her mind and that she was trying to decide whies to ask first. Her gaze seemed distant, almost sad, even. The experience must've affected her more than I could imagine.

  And then, she suddenly snapped bato focus with a bright grin on her lips as her tail curled behind her. She csped her hands behind her bad rocked bad forth on her feet as if nothing had been b her, the moment of awkwardness disappearing as quickly as it came. "Oh! Hey! Do you think you could e back to the dorms so we talk about yesterday?" she asked excitedly.

  I gave a wry grin and shook my head.

  "I'm not sure. I'm supposed to report to Emberline for a debrief. But erm..."

  I'd only stepped out of my suite because of a sudden sense of curiosity, and it had been pletely on impulse. But...

  I pulled at my bed hair self-sciously and gnced around the empty hallway. "I really o freshen up first."

  I could only imagine what a mess I must have looked like after spending a night in the ward, and I felt extremely exposed under Ichigo's, er, Cw Strawberry's gaze.

  I felt like a trainwreck, and it was hard not to feel a little unfortable when the only thing c my body was a thin, open-backed gown. I could feel the fabric ging to my skin, the air flowing through my hair and down my neck as if I was naked.

  I blushed, turning away to hide my embarrassment. I o get ed and dressed.

  "ht, right. That's probably for the best, yeah," Strawberry ughed sheepishly. "Sorry about all this."

  "It's fine, really. Um... do... do you have any pns ter iernoon? I mean, we should hang out and stuff. If you want to," I mumbled, rubbing the bay neck.

  "I'd love to, but... I dunno. My afternoon is pretty loaded up with csses," Strawberry said, frowning.

  "Oh. Well, maybe another day then," I mumbled, feeling a little bummed out.

  Strawberry was really cool to hang around and I had fun training with her.

  "Hey, how about lunch ter, though? We could talk more then and have a proper chat," she said.

  My smile returned and I nodded in agreement. "Erm, by the way. So uh, Elysia wound up revealing her identity to me too. I woke up with her shoveling a bottle of smelling salts up my nose bawling her eyes out. It's a long story."

  "Ah. Yeah, she be kinda like that, huh? She seems sweet though. If a bit etric." Strawberry mused.

  "Yeah. She is." I agreed. "But she's nice, and I like having her as a... friend."

  Strawberry smiled and then gnced down at my phone and Nexus device. "Welp. You've got a lot to get caught up on. I've got your back, so don't hesitate to reach out, okay? And I'll let everyone else down there with us know that you're doing alright."

  She jumped in and gave me one more quick hug, before turning around and walking down the hallway, heading towards the exit. Her cat ears flicked as her tail waved behind her, and she paused at the er, turning around and giving me a small wave.

  "Don't fet. I'll see you at lunch," she said with a smile before heading off.

  "See you ter... Ichigo," I replied.

  She giggled, and I could see the ers of her mouth turn up into a grin as she walked away with her hands behind her head.

  I sighed and leaned against the wall for a sed, taking a moment to collect my thoughts and calm my nerves.

  Today was definitely going to be an iing one. But I was ready for whatever came my way.

  I tugged at my hair again, frowning at the hospital gown.

  ... At least after a hot shower, that was.

  I took o look around, making sure no one else was in sight, before I walked bato my suite and shut the door behihen I stripped out of the gown, tossed it aside, and walked towards the shower.

  I turned oer, stepping inside as steam rose from the hot spray of the showerhead.

  The warm water cascaded down my body, and I could feel the grime of yesterday wash away with each passing moment. My hair soaked up the water, and I could feel myself rex as I stood uhe hot water.

  I stood in the shower for a long time, just enjoying the feeling of the warm water running over my body.

  That training 'exercise' was... fucked up. But, it had shown me a lot of what I was g, and what I could work on. And I'd be able to get ba track soon enough, I was sure. There were so mahings I could do, so mahings I wao learn and new ways I wao improve myself. There were still things that I o figure out, things I o overe, and things I wao quer, but that art of life. It wasn't like I had any reason to rush, or ao worry about anything.

  I wasn't alone anymore, after all.

  I sighed and closed my eyes as I thought back to the training session with Tesseract yesterday.

  She had somehow known about all the tension that'd been building up between the emergency tracts and the rest of our css. She had set things up so that we'd be forced to work together to survive.

  And then she'd somehow dumped aire horde of those creatures from the Cataclysm onto us, and forced us to fight them. And even though we were in a 'safe space,' where we wouldn't actually die, it didn't ge how terrifying it was.

  Just what kind of person was that woman?

  What was going on here at this academy, anyway? How had they even gotten those monsters? It was a mystery I wao unravel. Something was nagging at me in the bay mind and it wouldn't let up.

  But at least I wasn't alone.

  I'd finally found my... sister, even if it wasn't in the way that I had been expeg.

  And, even if things weren't quite perfect between us just yet, it was o have her in my life. And it was o have her to lean on.

  I paused, feeling the water cascade down my body as a wave of guilt suddenly came over me.

  I was supposed to circle back with Al after the field exercise yesterday, but I had never ended up messaging him.

  Did Stel let him know I was okay? I'd opened my phone directly to the Hammurabi Nexus instead of the regur interface earlier, so I had pletely skipped cheg the other messages on my phone.

  I frow the thought. He robably really worried.

  And... he was the one person I kneould uand how scary the whole experience had been. Apart from the cadets of course but I hadn't talked much with them, and they were probably all rec too. But, I o talk to Al about what happened.

  He deserved that much. He was my best friend after all. I'd have to make time for that today.

  But first, I o up a a bit of food in me.

  I finished up in the shower and then stepped out of the shower stall. I grabbed the owel and dried myself off, ing aowel around my head as I did.

  I looked in the mirror and saw myself staring back at me. My hair was a wet mess and there were dark circles under my eyes.

  "Yuck." I grimaced at myself in the mirror.

  I'd slept better than I had in weeks, but that was still an unfttering look. I was also bony, ft-chested, and looked like I hadn't beeing enough. It was a far cry from the healthy gloractically rolled off of Elysia and Strawberry.

  But sadly enough, it was still a massive improvement pared to how I had been looking when I had arrived in Kaleidoscope City. My mother had put in less hours because of her drinking problem and her worsenial health, and the food stamps hadn't stretched as far.

  The meals at the school had definitely done me a lot of good.

  I looked away from my refle, trying to not feel bad about myself, and finished drying off.

  I pulled the towel from around my head and hung it over the edge of the shower. Then, I tied the other towel around my waist.

  I ran my hands through my wet hair, bing through it and squeezing some of the excess moisture from it. Then, I picked up a fresh brush off the ter and began to y hair, w through the tangles.

  Hair had always been a hassle. I never really bothered much to care about it as much as I probably should have, but I tried to keep it looking someresentable. At the very least, I didn't have much body hair that aking care of.

  My mom oold me that my father retty light on the body hair front as well, and I had thankfully taken after him on that end. God knows keeping this mane under trol ain in the ass enough.

  I didn't remember what he looked like or anything, since he'd died before I was old enough to know who he was, so I just took her word for it. I did wonder sometimes how my life and my mom's would have been different if he was still around.

  But it was something that couldn't ge. Time that had passed us by.

  Once I was satisfied, I brushed my hair into pce, then looked in the mirror o time before stepping back out of the bathroom, into the suite's main room.

  It was...

  I shook my head, trying to keep myself distracted from thinking about the past, and how I had nearly died yesterday. The memories were too fresh and the overwhelming fear and terror still lingered.

  I still had the rest of my life to live.

  But would fighting those... those things be part of it?

  Would I really want to spend my days fighting them? What did they even want, anyways? They weren't just monsters, they were intelligent, or at the very least, capable of coordinating and following ands to aent. I remembered the way that the wendigo thing had looked at me with its eyes, its gaze b into my soul. It was hungry, it wao feed, it wao kill, it wao eat, it wao...

  I shuddered.

  No.

  I had more than enough on my pte.

  I just had to take it day by day, and that's all I o focus on. I would just keep my head down aronger.

  Just focus oing through this week.

  Then the . Then the .

  I turned and scrutinized my figure in my suite's bathroom.

  I was slow. Faster than any ordinary humaransformed, but that was just the bare minimum.

  I was weak. My magic wasn't anything to write home about, and it was the only offensive power I had that wasn't pletely awful.

  But, there was room to grow and I was already doing that. I'd already gotten stronger, and I could still keep growing.

  I'd o practice my skills, get faster and stronger, and work on my reflexes. And I'd also o work oing faster and more precise in using my abilities, as well as work on my mana efficy. That'd have to be my focus from here on out.

  I'd o work on being able to dodge, to parry, and to avoid attacks. And more options for increasing the distance. My small frame would always be an issue in terms of raw strength, reach, and leverage.

  I'd have to make up for what I was g in raw power by being mile, and I'd need more options to survive up close and create space. The fact that my magic was so versatile was a blessing, si gave me a ton of options.

  I didn't uand how I was able to use some of Twilight Aster and... my mother's abilities after my Luminary version evolved into Hopeful Heart Alchemy, but I wasn't going to pin. As expensive as tapping those abilities had been, I was sure with enough time and practice, I could use them to great effect. Maybe I could evehem without burning my mana to nothing in seds.

  The shower had given me a bit of time to process things, but the memories were still there, lingering at the bay mind. The feeling of helplessness as the monster's jaws closed in ohe fear and terror as I was being ed.

  The hopelessness as it all seemed lost, but...

  But, I had survived. I was still here.

  And that meant that I still had a ce.

  I had a ake something of myself, to bee something.

  I could do this. I would do this.

  I would take it day by day, week by week, month by month.

  Aually, one day, I would make it.

  I would survive, I would graduate, things would ge, and I'd finally get my ce at a better life. A real life.

  And I'd find my mom one day and drag her kig and screaming to a better life too, if I had to. She'd given up on being a Magical Girl but she hadn't deserved the hand that life had dealt to her.

  She didn't deserve what she'd bee.

  To send herself off to god knows where to buy the world time in an act of desperation. An aartyrdom.

  And I had no doubt that was what it had been.

  She wasn't the sort to give up. She was stubborn to the core, even if she hadn't had much to show for it. It's probably where I had gotten it from. So no matter how bad things had gotten, she wouldn't have just abandoned me like that.

  I'd seen her fight through hell to provide for us. But her demons were a fight that she had always fought on her own. And those same demons had taken a toll. She'd lost her hope, her spirit.

  But... she was still the same woman that had sat down with me to read stories about heroes, princesses and knights. The one who taught me about ideals, and dreams, and what was worth fighting for, and what it meant to be brave. Of morality, and kindness.

  I hadn't just imagihe good times, the love we'd shared. She was in there, somewhere. She'd just been... lost along the way. And if I was ever going to find her again... If she was ever going to find her way out of the darkness...

  If she was going to find her hope again...

  I had to give her something to believe in.

  Something to keep fighting for.

  I closed my hands around my phone, willing my mana into it, aing the light that I knew was there, within me, flow out and through my device, and I smiled. It was bright and brilliant aiful, and I probably wouldn't ever get totally used to it.

  I had a new life to lead, a new destiny to carve, a new future to make, and new dreams to reach. And... I had to do it without her.

  So I just o show her the same thing that she had taught me, so long ago. To show her the magic, the miracles that a person could make, and that they were real.

  That it wasn't too te, no matter what the world might have shown her. No matter how far gone she might have been.

  I'd show her the magic she had shown me when I was a little kid, and bring her back.

  A fsh e-red, like the color of the sun, filled the mirror, and I felt the warm light of my magic radiating back from the gss as a uniform materialized around me.

  The light grew brighter, brighter, brighter, and then... it faded. There was no lohe image of a sad and scared little girl staring back at me from the mirror.

  I adjusted my dress and took a deep breath, frowning at the image that greeted me.

  It wasn't the exact dress I'd been in before I'd gohrough the field training exercise, but it was a simir enough style and design. I wondered if the Hammurabi Nexus stored backups and duplicates or something.

  But there was time to think about that ter.

  Right. Time.

  Now, time to text Al bad see Emberline for the debrief.

  But first...

  I looked back at the tray of assorted, cold breakfast foods.

  ...Food first. One more up...

  Then Al. Then E.

  Right. Good. I had a game pn.

  Eyes forward, Sienna.

  Oep at a time.