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Haruka and Sayo didn't often get to have a day off. Between PR work, attacks from Enormeeta, training, and school life, their schedules were always packed to bursting.
Unfortunately, this wasn't one they could enjoy.
Vatz was missing, and Kaoruko along with them. They had been since last night, when the four of them stepped through the portal to come back from a training session in the mountains...and only two of them came out the other side. Haruka had been sick with worry, and Sayo had fallen into a pessimistic spiral as the night wore on with no sign of their friends.
Part of Haruka thought that Kaoruko would show up the next morning with Vatz, maybe give them a little playful ribbing for getting so worried, and they'd all go on with their day...
But no.
Now, the two of them sat together in the park, an uneasy silence between them as they took a break from their search with some convenience store udon. They'd been searching since sunrise for Vatz and Kaoruko, but there was no sign of them.
"Like they were pulled out of time." Sayo suddenly breaking the silence caused Haruka to jolt, and nearly made her spill what was left of her udon. "It's like Vatz and Kaoruko were pulled out of time by some invisible hand...leaving no trace behind."
"Y-Yeah. I-It's kind of like a movie, isn't it?" It did seem kind of like a thriller plot...or something from that one show Kaoruko liked. Doctor...something or other. It was a bit too spooky for Haruka a lot of the time, so she rarely paid attention when it was on. "...If that's the case, what are we going to do? It's not like we can just reach in and pull them back."
"You're right. We can't." Sayo took a few gulps of her udon broth before continuing. "And without Vatz, we can't use portals."
Haruka paused with a bite of udon halfway to her mouth. "So...what, do we just wait for something to happen? Do we just sit on our butts if Enormeeta attacks?"
"Call it a hunch...but I don't think Enormeeta is going to attack." Sayo finished off her udon and wiped her lips with a handkerchief. "Something is...wrong." Sayo was quiet for a long few moments after that.
Haruka could see the wheels turning in her head, and was curious as to just what she was thinking, but held her tongue. Sayo didn't like being interrupted when she was racking her brain like this. She finished off her own udon, then took her and Sayo's empty bowls to the nearby trash can before returning to the bench.
Then, against her better judgement, she had an idea.
Sayo was mortified when Haruka shared it with her.
Nacht Base felt...empty. Empty in a way it never had before. Utena's fingers traced delicately over the surface of their meeting table, a slight frown creasing her brow. "It's dusty."
"Dusty?" Kiwi's words were muffled behind a mouthful of shrimp chips. "Doesn't Vena-chan always keep this place clean?" When Korisu nodded somewhere in the vicinity of her elbow, she continued. "Any sign of Matama or Nemo?"
Utena shook her head. "None. Really, this place is...barren. It's like nobody has ever lived here."
"Mm, that's weird." Kiwi swallowed her mouthful and tossed the bag away, where it simply melted into the floor. "But, like, what can we do about it? We don't know where Vena-chan might've gone..."
Utena brought a finger up to her mouth and began gnawing at her fingernail. "This doesn't make any sense. Why would they just...disappear? I don't understand." Utena had been drawn here by an odd...feeling. Some kind of hunch, intuition, or something else. "It's wrong, Kiwi-chan. It's all wrong."
"Utena-chan..." Kiwi had seen her friend in all sorts of emotional states before—from indescribable happiness to the depths of despair, and even a seething rage that scared the shit out of Kiwi. This, though, was completely different.
Utena was scared. Scared in a way Kiwi had never seen before, scared in a way that shook her to the core. She opened her mouth to try and soothe Utena somehow, to try and find the words to comfort her...but nothing came out.
"I don't get it." Utena moved from gnawing her fingernail to her finger proper. "Matama and Nemo have never just up and disappeared like this, and Vena-san is always hovering around one of us." Usually, it was Utena herself.
"W-Well, hey, maybe those two are just at a hotel together!" Kiwi hated how shaky her voice sounded—Utena's fear was getting to her now, too.
Utena glanced up at Kiwi, and something that lurked in her friend's eyes shut Kiwi up right away. She couldn't quite put a finger on it...but whatever was there wasn't something Kiwi felt like fucking with. "O-Okay, yeah, I get it, no more jokes." An involuntary shiver ran up Kiwi's spine and set off alarm bells in her head.
"Kiwi...there's only one explanation for all of this." Utena bit down on her finger, sharp teeth bared in seething anger as blood started to trickle from her knuckle. "Someone...something...stole them. Something wants to hurt them...and we're going to hurt it back."
"U-Utena-chan, your finger—" Kiwi's attempt to call attention to the blood was cut short by Korisu suddenly tugging on her sleeve. "Huh? What's wrong, Korisu?" Kiwi turned to look at her, inwardly grateful for the distraction from whatever was getting at Utena.
Utena's anger seemed to abate as she met Korisu's typical unblinking stare. "Did you sense something, Korisu-chan?"
Korisu gave a single emphatic nod.
"Ah, it's Tres Magia, then?" Utena rolled her neck and sighed. "...All right. I could stand to vent a little frustration." When she looked to Kiwi, her eyes had softened again...but Kiwi couldn't help but still feel uneasy. "What about you, Kiwi-chan? Wanna come?"
"You're damn right. I could stand to grind that titless wonder's face into the asphalt for a bit! C'mon, Utena-chan, let's go—ah, an' you too, Korisu."
Korisu gave another emphatic nod.
Unexpectedly, there weren't three magical girls waiting for them at the old abandoned house—only two, Magenta and Azure, and neither looked ready to fight. Baiser motioned for her comrades to hang back as she floated down to the weed-strewn cobblestones a stone's throw away from Magenta and Azure. "Looks like you're missing one, hmm?" A wicked grin came to her face, easy as it always did. "A shame, Leo-chan was really looking forward to pummeling Sulfur."
Magenta held her hands out to her sides, palms facing forward in a gesture of...peace, perhaps. "Enormeeta, we're not here to fight this time. We...want to ask for your help."
Baiser's eyebrows shot up to full mast at that. "Is that so? And what, pray tell, could the mighty Tres Magia—or Dos Magia, I suppose—want our help with?" The heroes and villains working together? Not unheard of, but not exactly common...
Magenta and Azure exchanged looks, and Azure stepped forward to speak. "If you don't mind, we'll cut to the chase, Enormeeta."
"By all means." Baiser turned her palms up, showing deference to the other.
Azure took a breath. "You've noticed we're missing our third, Magia Sulfur."
"That's right."
"It's not merely a matter of her being...indisposed or unavailable. She's...disappeared, without a trace, along with our fairy Vatz."
Baiser felt her heart stop for a moment. Disappeared...without a trace. "I see. Continue." She still wasn't quite sure where her Enormeeta came into the equation, but...
"Without Vatz, we don't have access to portals." Magenta continued from where Azure left off. "And we lost the two of them when we all went through a portal together..."
"It's almost like they were yanked out of time. Like they ceased to exist."
Like they ceased to exist. That stuck in Baiser's head. Is that what happened to Loco, Leber, and Vena-san? "I'm starting to get the picture. You want to use one of our portals to try and find your friend, hm? Is that right?"
"Yeah, exactly! So—"
"It's quite a story, but why should I agree?" Baiser empathized, of course, but it was her job to play the villain...and admittedly, she was curious to see what Magenta and Azure would say.
"You need answers, too, Magia Baiser." The way Azure said it made Baiser's anxiety spike—she was so certain that Baiser was sure she'd somehow been eavesdropping on them in Nacht Base. "You're missing members, too. Loco Musica and Leberblume...you've lost them, haven't you? Just like we lost Sulfur and Vatz."
Baiser was...shaken. "How do you...?" She felt her fingernails digging into her palms and tried her best to relax her grip before she drew blood.
"...Your eyes, Magia Baiser. When we told you what our problem is, I saw your eyes soften and grow a little wider."
"Azure...I guess you read me like a book." Baiser beckoned over her shoulder to Leoparde and Neroalice. "In the interest of transparency...yes. Venalita, Loco, and Leberblume went missing two or three days ago, and there's no visible trace of them that we can find. It's...like they ceased to exist." Baiser's eyes flicked to lock with Azure's for a moment. "I can make portals, but I'm not as precise as Venalita is with them. I can't send you straight to her...I don't know where she is. Though, you probably guessed that, huh?"
"More or less."
"You two might get separated...this might make things worse."
"Yeah...but we won't know unless we try, right?"
Leoparde joined them, flanked by Neroalice. "What's goin' on, Baiser-chan? Why aren't we tryin' to kill each other? An' where the hell is Sulfur?"
"They don't know, Leo-chan." The blunt statement seemed to catch Leoparde by surprise. "They want our help to try and find her."
"Ohhh, that so?" Leoparde leaned forward. "Are we gonna help 'em?"
Baiser took just a moment to make her decision. "Yeah." She offered a hand to Magenta. "Magia Magenta. For now...let's call a truce until we find our friends. We'll help you...but once we find them, we'll be enemies again, as it should be. Agreed?"
Magenta hesitated, glancing at Azure for input. Azure gave a slight nod, and Magenta took Baiser's hand. "Agreed. Truce."
Baiser shook Magenta's hand with a slight smile, then turned to Leoparde. "Leo-chan, Alice-chan. They'll need guides through the portal—you two go with Magenta-san. I'll go with Azure-san." She glanced over her shoulder towards the two magical girls. "Any objections?"
"None."
"Nope!"
Baiser nodded, then held her hand out, palm-forward, at the empty air to their right. The sky seemed to rip apart before being swallowed by a foggy black portal, big enough for even the taller-than-average Azure to walk through easily. Magenta went first, taking Leoparde and Neroalice's hands before entering the portal without hesitation. Several seconds of silence passed between Baiser and Azure before they clasped each other's hands and followed.
The rip in the sky closed behind them, the foggy blackness dissipating into the evening air.
In their wake, there was only silence.