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“Disappear with me.”
“Huh?”
“Disappear with me!”
“Hanna, I don’t understand.”
“Just stay with me. Go where we wanna go!” Hanna closed the distance between Mikoto and herself, suddenly flinging an arm around her shoulder. “Hunt witches or whatever? We can do anything we want, can’t we? So why should we stay in this world, doing what we’re supposed to do, going where we’re supposed to go? Don’t you ever get bored of it?”
“You mean you want run away?” She gently removed the other girl’s arm, but didn’t pull away. “I mean, what about school? I have a family, you know. I don’t want to worry anybody. How long would we even be gone?”
Hanna let out a short laugh and put her hands on Mikoto’s shoulder, ignoring the earlier brush-off. “Ya seriously don’t get it? Sena, we can do anything. I mean anything! We don’t have to worry about your parents, or anybody! Not with our powers!” She stared intensely into Mikoto’s eyes, long enough to become uncomfortable. She blinked, shook her head. Put her hands at her side and took a small step back. “No, you’re completely right. It was silly. Sorry, Sena. Not sure what got into me there.” She took another step back, looking down at the ground. Sheepish.
Mikoto blinked a couple of times, shook off the tension, and laughed openly. “Oh my God! Hanna! That’s ridiculous! Where would we even go, anyway? You’re so silly.” She smiled though. She wasn’t mad. Just surprised. She wouldn’t have guessed Hanna had it in her to make a joke like that.
“Right, yeah,” Hanna muttered, smiling half-heartedly. “Just wanted to see how you’d react.” She turned away from her only friend and stretched. “Well, it’s getting late and it seems pretty quiet around here. Guess we should head out for the night.” She started walking away.
“Yeah. See you tomorrow, right? The usual meeting spot?”
Hanna didn’t pause as she answered back. “Of course. The usual spot.”
Hanna had not heard what she wanted to hear. She didn’t wanted to push too far too fast, or get Mikoto on her guard. She wasn’t even 100% sure her new plan would work. Yeah, she could use her powers on that Kanagi chick. It was a pretty safe gamble, all things considered. But there was always the chance. After all, it was Mikoto’s power first. Either way though, she reminded herself, whatever happened next was going to be interesting.
She didn’t say anything untoward for the next couple of days, trying to let her poor “joke” fade from memory. Instead, she tried to push her relationship with Mikoto further. Tried to open up in ways she hadn’t before, show how much she trusted her. Hanna found ways to remind Mikoto that while she might have friends and family who cared about her, all Hanna had was Mikoto. ‘It’s not so bad, of course’, Hanna would profess. ‘You’re all I need anyway. Less complicated shit like this. Just us.’ It wasn’t that she didn’t want Mikoto to have friends, oh no. It just didn’t suit her.
And Hanna didn’t just push with her words, either. She started to let her hands linger a little too long on Mikoto’s skin, let her eyes linger a little too long on Mikoto’s form. Just enough for there to be questions about her intentions, but not enough for those questions to be asked. She needed to test something before she took the big plunge, and she knew how to do it. Plant the right thoughts, the right questions. Her test, should it fail, wouldn’t come as a shock. As long as they were working together, she could play the long game.
It wasn’t such a long game, in the end.
There was a witch. Finally, a witch! After spending so long, only playing with familiars. They hadn’t ever acknowledged it among themselves, but both girls had been thinking it: they were in serious trouble if they didn’t find a witch soon. Both their soul gems had been getting cloudy.
It was a rough battle, but they had something to show for it. They were able to clear up their soul gems with the spoils. The two girls felt a weight lift off their shoulders as the impurities flowed away. Mikoto grabbed Hanna by the hands. “We did it!” she called out, jumping up and down and pulling her friend along with her.
Hanna jumped along with her a couple times, then pulled Mikoto’s hands together in between them. She let joy and relief flood onto her face. She looked earnestly into Mikoto’s eyes, still transformed. She spoke, firmly and deliberately. “Kiss me,” she said.
Mikoto’s face changed briefly, as she followed the directive she’d been given without hesitation. Then she was back. “I- Hanna, I’m-” Mikoto stuttered, her face flushed. She pulled her hands away from Hanna’s. “I’m so sorry, I don’t know what came over me! Usually I don’t-”
Hanna just grinned back at her. Test successful! “No problem! Heat of the battle and all that! Ya know, I,” Hanna looked away briefly, preparing to sell her performance before facing her again. “I feel the same way. So don’t worry ‘bout that at all!” She laughed. She thought about kissing her back, but Mikoto didn’t seem ready to commit like that. She still didn’t want to scare her away just yet. Let her have her space for now, if she needed it. She had what she needed for now.
Mikoto took a step away from Hanna, and then another. “I don’t think I’m ready for this,” she said carefully. “I’m tired after the fight. I’m going to go ahead home. But I’ll see you tomorrow.” She waited for Hanna to answer, but Hanna only nodded and turned to go on her way.
The days went on, and Hanna pushed more and more. Not for anything big. Not at first. “Answer your homework assignment wrong.” “Steal a notebook from a friend.” “Forget to change your shoes at school.” Silly things. Mikoto couldn’t understand why she was doing these things. She became distressed, confiding in Hanna. And Hanna was quick to provide reassurances. “You must be tired, working so hard with me every day. Always givin’ it your all, even for familiars. Or maybe it’s stress from school. I dunno, you just need a break. That’s all.” She never made Mikoto do anything when they were together. Not after the kiss.
That couldn’t last though. It got boring, fast. Hanna needed results. Something she could see in front of her. Mikoto’s reactions just weren’t enough anymore. Besides, she needed to see how far she could go. Could she push Mikoto into doing anything she wanted? What she’d been doing until now had been fine, not the upstanding behaviour Mikoto usually exhibited, but nothing truly objectionable. At first, Hanna would tell herself it wasn’t any different from when she and Mikoto first started testing their powers together, but of course she understood that it was. Then she told herself, ‘so what? Mikoto’s my friend, she should at least do this much for me.’
So she started pushing for more and more from Mikoto. “Ignore your friends when they talk to ya.” “Skip school with me tomorrow.” “Stay out with me tonight.” That’s when Mikoto started to break. Hanna wasn’t sure if she started to realize what was happening or not, but she was changing. She didn’t seem happy anymore when she met Hanna to hunt. She was quieter. She started making more and more excuses to cut their time together short. Hanna let it slide, for a while, until Mikoto pulled together all her courage and shouted abruptly one day, “I won’t see you anymore!”
Hanna blinked at her, feeling like she’d just been hit. At first, all she could manage to get out was “What?”
Mikoto stood her ground. “I’m worried Hanna. I think- I think my feelings for you are becoming too much. I don’t know what’s gotten into me! Some days I don’t even show up for class, I’m staying out all night, my parents and teachers are wondering where I am. It’s like I can’t stand to be away from you. But it’s too much! I can’t let my life suffer over you. You can always call me if you’re in a bind, but... I think this needs to be good bye. I’m sorry. I know how you feel about me, obviously I feel the same, but I just don’t think I’m ready...”
Mikoto was on the verge of tears as she watched Hanna’s face for a reaction. Expecting a face that would mirror her own, she barely had time to react when Hanna started grinning instead. When Hanna transformed into her magical girl self. When Hanna grabbed her arm, looked her in the eyes, and ordered, “Stay with me.”
Mikoto’s face went blank for a moment, and Hanna snickered. Leaving? Ridiculous! But then something changed. Mikoto blinked, shook her head. As she stared at Hanna, something that had been hiding under the surface flooded onto her face. Shock? Betrayal? Terror?
She transformed as well, and took a step back. “Did you ju- was tha- is-”, she stuttered, starting and stopping the same accusations. She closed her mouth, as if to reboot, opened it again, and all that tumbled out this time was a single word. “HANNA!”
At the same time, Hanna’s face was also changing. The grin fell away. The light behind her eyes dulled. She couldn’t believe what was happening. She’d always known there was a chance that Mikoto wouldn’t take to one of her suggestions, of course. It wasn’t that. No, she couldn’t believe Mikoto was going to leave her. Mikoto was all that she had! And Mikoto knew that! It wasn’t fair! How could there be a world like this, one that was so cruel to her all the time? Why give her Mikoto in the first place, if she was only going to be taken back? No, that’s too cruel of a trick.
She took a step forward, and Mikoto took a step back, stumbling. Her words seemed to return in force as she steadied herself. “You’re using your powers on me! How- how long? How could you? I trusted you! We were friends and I trusted you!”
Eyes glassy, face dull, Hanna answered slowly, seemingly without emotion. “That’s your mistake, Sena. Mikoto,” she added, addressing the scared girl in front of her by her first name for once. “Never trust. Anyone. There’s nothing good for you here, the world’s too cruel to people like us. That’s why...” Hanna trailed off, then started laughing. “That’s why we have to take! Take what we need! Do what we wanna do! Forget this cruel, borin’ world and go wild! So come to me, Mikoto!” She opened her arms as she said this, and Mikoto obligingly stepped into them.
As Hanna’s arms closed around the other girl, Mikoto was already starting to struggle. “Hanna,” she whimpered, “please. You’re scaring me.”
A clipped, distorted-sounding laugh escaped from Hanna’s throat. “Goddamn right,” she hissed. “You should be scared of me. Now,” Hanna said firmly, “stop.” The struggling stopped, but not for long. She repeated the command. Her magic wasn’t sticking for even as long as it would on a witch, let alone on a familiar. Hanna needed a new strategy.
What neither girl noticed in their power struggle was the state of their soul gems. Mikoto’s, in particular, was rapidly clouding as she fought. Fought against her friend. Fought against the magic. Fought back the horrible emotions writhing in her gut.
Both girls came to a decision at the same time. As Mikoto twisted to strike Hanna in the gut with her knee, Hanna was opening her mouth again, filling her words with as much power as she could summon. “Be mine!” she screamed, “Why won’t you just be mine?” Mikoto went limp in Hanna’s arms. Hanna laid her on the ground and took a step back, and then another. Panting from the exertion, she wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry.
And then there was a sound.
Almost imperceptible.
Of something shattering.
And the force of Mikoto Sena becoming a witch threw Hanna against a nearby wall, along with the other, less-fortunate girl’s body.
“And the rest, as they say, is history! Not a bad story, huh? I turned my only friend into a witch! Does it make you pity me? Fear me? Ah hahahaha! Doesn’t matter now! I’ll just make ya forget all about me! No use in makin’ friends now, is there? I’ve got better things to do anyway!”