Work Text:
It was your typical scorching day in Orlando, Florida. Sweat was running across the legs of everyone in the Magic Kingdom. Children were passing out from exhaustion. And flares were going off from the Cinderella Castle.
Asuka Otori wasn’t warned about any flares. She thought that going to the Magic Kingdom would be a fun way to spend time while she and her comrades were in Orlando. Even though Asuka had retired from active magical girl duty after the Babel Brigade had been defeated, she sometimes still donned her identity as Rapture whenever the need arose. After all, she was the most powerful magical girl in the world. The one that defeated the Disas Beast twice. And the girlfriend of one of the JGSDF’s most loyal fighters, Kurumi Mugen.
The need had arisen for Asuka’s presence in Orlando when a cell of pro-Babel Brigade sympathizers local to the area had created plans to attack innocent civilians, using magic and firepower to trap them into submission. Earlier that day, she was able to defeat them - one Magical Calorie Roll Up and all of their power was gone. It almost seemed like it was laughable for Kurumi, as well as Chisato and Nazani, to come to Orlando too - all they needed was Asuka. But Nazani had taken the opportunity to convince the older magical girls to have a fun day at the park after their work. Asuka was sympathetic enough to Nazani that she and the others decided to take her to Disney World - but she had no clue that a sudden explosion would be in the air.
Asuka froze in the middle of the street, her bones shaking as the impact of the explosion came in. Her heart started beating a million miles a minute, sweat and tingles running through her back.
Kurumi pulled her aside, eyes flashing with concern. “It was just one firework. That was it. You aren’t there anymore.”
Unfortunately, hearing her girlfriend’s voice wasn’t enough for Asuka to let her guard down. She kept standing there, eyes drooping to the walls. “Hildegarde… Magdalena… Claudia… Patricia…”
“ASUKA!” Nazani yelled, practically tugging Asuka through the crowd. “We need to go on the Jungle Cruise!”
“What the fuck is the Jungle Cruise?”, Asuka replied. She was grateful for Nazani’s incessant pulling - it definitely woke her up from the flashback - but she genuinely had no clue what it was. The books she read to numb herself back in high school said many things about jungles and even more about cruises, but nothing about them put together.
Kurumi ran to the other side of Asuka, tugging her hair. “The Jungle Cruise! It’s brilliant! There’s animals and water and pools and a tunnel! It’s exactly what we need on a hot day like this!”
Chisato followed the others ahead, her bow getting tangled in her hair as she walked. “My mother once took me to the Jungle Cruise when I was young. I liked the skipper. He made me laugh.”
Asuka swallowed as she and her group came close to the entrance. The line seemed to be a million miles long. What was Nazani thinking? Why would this seem to cheer her up from her misery if all they would do was sit on a hot line, when another boom could come from the sky and she’d feel like the world was ending again?
The world would end again… they’d turn another one of her friends into…
“Watch this,” Kurumi boasted, leaving the others behind. She sauntered to the Jungle Cruise entrance, giving the employee a sweet look. “Um, hi. It’s my girlfriend’s birthday, and I was wondering if we could skip the line…”
The employee shook his head. “It’s five hundred dollars a person to skip the line.”
“How much in yen?”
“Five thousand yen a person.”
Kurumi’s eyes bolted with anger. “FIVE THOUSAND YEN A PERSON?’’ She grabbed her syringe. “If you don’t let us on this fucking boat RIGHT FUCKING NOW…” Chisato covered Nazani’s ears at the curse word as Kurumi continued her rant, “I WILL TAKE THIS NEEDLE AND…”
The employee relented. “Fine, then. Skip the line. But if you try this again, you’re getting kicked out of the park.”
With a smile, Kurumi turned to Asuka, Chisato and Nazani. “Come on. We don’t have to wait.”
The group winded themselves throughout the lines, skipping past every person who was waiting. Crying children, Disney adults taking selfies, even one girl who screamed ‘those girls look like they’re from the Magical Five!’, but Asuka quickly ran past, leading the group towards the boat. Granted, she was still shaken. She wasn’t sure if this would help as much as her friends were hyping it up. But Kurumi was confident it would cool her off. Make going to this place worth it.
It would all be worth it. Right?
Asuka sat down on the boat.
Right?
A baby screamed right next to her.
Right?
Kurumi squeezed her hand.
Right?
The crackling of a microphone.
Right?
“Hello, Jungle Cruise! My name is Francine, and I will be your skipper today!”
At those words, a shattering pit entered Asuka’s stomach.
“Francine?”, she muttered.
The Jungle Cruise skipper turned to Asuka with a laugh. Her eyes had the same glint as the one she was dreading. The same look. The same short blonde hair. The same demeanor.
“Don’t fear, young one!”, the skipper quipped. “I’m not the evil Francine that tried to kill the entirety of the human race and create a monarchy where only magical girls were on top! I’m just your ordinary run of the mill Jungle Cruise skipper, who will totally not crash the boat and make you all suffer!”
Asuka’s eyes widened. She bit her lip, trying not to curse out Francine at a theme park, or blab her secret identity. She would have done anything - literally anything - to get the boat to stop. To get off of here. To get out of this park. Kurumi and Chisato could watch over Nazani. She had to get out of here.
But it was too late. The boat had taken off by now. And it was going a million miles a minute.
Disney adults were watching in awe. Nazani and Chisato were distracted by animatronic hippopotami. Asuka gripped her magical transformation necklace, but she knew she couldn’t whip it out. Karambits were banned on Disney property, after all. But how did this Skipper even make it here? Francine was dead! She died twice, just like Protoman in that rock opera Nozomi had her listening to! Except Protoman had a point, and Francine didn’t.
All Francine wanted was a pile of bodies in the name of justice. War and fighting to rage on for the rest of the Earth’s days. But even though this was supposed to be a break from the fighting, both the fireworks, the lines, and this, made Asuka want to break down into tears.
“As you can see,” Francine began, “there is so much life on this planet. Life that must be protected. Be held gently. Be taken away from the evils of man.”
Oh, shit. The hair on Asuka’s arms prickled up. More sweat came down her legs, but even though the air was humid, Asuka knew that the sweat was from the eerie similarity the Skipper had with the fallen villain.
“I know I probably shouldn’t be saying this on the boat, or else Mr. Meeska Mooska Mouse will come and fire me. But I don’t know. My father is a higher up here. I can get away with anything.”
Anything? Asuka did recall that her father did work with the Babel Brigade. Mia had fought him off in Ukraine, and the realization that he was her father was the puzzle that exposed Francine’s identity as the Brigadier.
Had they magically come back to life? Were they now working at Disney? Was the attack from earlier just a front to start Asuka’s third war in four years?
“But I want real animals here. It’s a shame that we have animatronics. But then they’d have to give up the fireworks shows. Boo hoo. Too bad so sad -”
Asuka stood up. “That’s ENOUGH!”
The boat paused. Francine gave Asuka a dirty look. “May I remind you that you must remain seated with your hands, arms, feet and legs inside the vehicle at all times.”
“But you’re lying to us all!” Asuka gritted, grabbing onto her magical necklace.
Francine tilted her head. “How do you know? Was it my joke that crossed the line about sharing a name with the person who almost killed the human race?”
Asuka nodded, but before Francine could elaborate, she walked across the deck. Pointed towards Nazani. “And you forgot, you must supervise children.”
Nazani rolled her eyes. “I’m in middle school! According to Disney World, I’m an adult, because we had to pay two-thousand yen just to get in for the day!”
As Chisato held onto Nazani tighter, Francine scoffed. “Am I the Big Cheese? Do I set the prices? No! I’m just an overworked Jungle Cruise skipper, and I want this bullshit to stop!”
Another boat bumped into the one Asuka was on. “You need to move! You’re holding up the line!”
Francine rushed back to the steering wheel. “It’s all YOUR FAULT, girl!”
Asuka’s heart began pounding fast.
“Kids these days, you can’t take a joke!”
Her entire body froze up.
“But maybe who knows? Maybe that Francine was right!”
Her body shook thinking of everything that had happened. Thinking of Nozomi’s capture. Of Chisato and Nazani being forced by circumstance to work for Babel. Thinking of her friends being brainwashed. Thinking of the whole world being at stake. All the people that died. All the chaos that was caused. All the pain. All the hurt. Everything that she had fought for, both in the Distonian War and in the resulting events.
She hadn’t almost lost her sanity. She hadn’t fought those monsters. She hadn’t protected the world - all for one Jungle Cruise skipper to assume that it wasn’t worth fighting for because her PTSD got triggered by a joke.
She was Rapture Asuka. She was strong. She was brave. And wherever it was - whether on a battlefield, or on a Jungle Cruise boat, she would fight that injustice.
Asuka cleared her throat. Stared Francine down. Looked her deep in the eye. “I’m glad I’m alive. I’m glad I’m here. I’m glad that even though I’m different, I have friends and a girlfriend who care. I know that things are hard. But sometimes, toughing it out through the hard parts is what is necessary to truly live. Life is worth living, and I’m sorry if you can’t feel that right now. But maybe one day, you’ll find the strength and courage to try.”
Francine stood there, silent. She gripped onto the boat, steering, but her gaze was still stuck on Asuka. Grasping her words…
Kurumi then stood up, hand on Asuka’s shoulder. “You know who wasn’t really right? Your mother.”
The entire boat then started laughing then and there.
After the boat disembarked, Asuka turned to Nazani with a smile. “Sorry that the boat trip you hyped up was nothing like you imagined.”
Nazani grabbed onto Asuka’s hand, shaking her head. “The animatronics weren’t worth the hype. The fun part was hearing you and Kurumi defeat Francine for the third time!”
Kurumi laughed. “I doubt that was really Francine. There’s no way she could have respawned again!”
Asuka looked towards her feet, her face beet-red. “Yeah. No way.”
Chisato waved to the others, motioning them towards a restaurant nearby. “I heard this place has some kickass chicky nuggies. Want to try them?”
Kurumi gave Asuka a smile. “After what we’ve been through, I think chicken nuggets would be a good future for us all.”
“OH!”, Nazani shouted as the girls got seated, “DO YOU THINK THEY HAVE DINO NUGGIES?” Asuka shrugged. “I don’t know! Let’s look at the menu and see!”
But before the group could look at the menu and decide what type of nuggets they’d like, a voice cut through the loud cafeteria. A voice that caused Asuka and Kurumi to look at each other in disgust, their hearts racing with anxiety.
“An order up for Abigail?”
“NOT THIS SHIT AGAIN!”, they both wailed.