Chapter 32 – Prepare For Trouble And Make It Double (7)

I didn’t expect the double-date mini-arc to drag on for so long, it's ending soon, hopefully. I promise the next arc will have more action.

Ding Ding Ding

The bell hanging above the door chimed prompting a ‘Welcome!’ from the backroom. But when the owner came out to greet the new customer, only the tops of two cosplayers' heads, between the displays, were visible. How peculiar, he shrugged and returned to his packing.

-

Lust, being given a second chance, changed up her approach with Feeu. Though, it did not stop her from enthusiastically dragging Feeu around the shop. Her bright smile could not tell the full story of how happy she was exploring this wonderland for the first time with her lovely Magical Girl. Meanwhile, Feeu's grimace similarly failed to capture her feeling to the contrary.

First off, Lust grabbed a shopping basket and bee-lined for the figurine section. But, to her chagrin, the walkway around the area was narrow. She was forced to break their h*nd h*lding and have Feeu follow behind. Many of the glass displays were empty or half-stocked, which must have brought constant agony to the owner. Despite the lacking state of the shelves, there were sufficient models of Magical Girls and Witches for Lust to ramble about, somewhat resembling Keiko in the photo gallery. Poor Feeu learnt more than she ever wanted about figurines this day.

“—because they’re afraid of being traced, these won't have any stickers or logos, which you should keep an eye out for. Therefore, we have to rely on our judgement—

"—packaging can easily be an easy test—

"—See here, here, and here, the hair highlight and paint gradients—”

Her long spiel continued until they reached the end of the figurine section and entered another. Lust finally took a breath and asked, “Isn't this place wonderful?”

“Huh? Oh, ya’re finally done. . .” Feeu reluctantly returned the Metermi plushie she was squishing. “Wonderful? No, definitely not. This place pisses me off. Here we are struggling to protect everyone, yet, some people are trying to make money off our hard work. It’s fuc—fudging revolting. ”

“So it’s fine if you're the one making the money?” Lust asked, at the same time, she measured a hoodie she found against her body. It had a tasteful crest on its left chest made of weapons of Magical Girls. It was slightly big. She placed it back on the rack, but after some thought, added it to her basket along with another two sizes smaller.

“No, I rather no one commodifies us. That dough is better spent helping out refugees or the war effort instead of wasting it on useless stuff.” Feeu extracted a calendar from a pile. Flipping through it revealed pictures of Magical Girls kicking ass and taking names. With a scoff, she tossed it back.

Lust caught the tumbling calendar in her basket. “You don't get anything from donation except self-satisfaction. At least these give you wanking material. Trust me, if ever TransMagica endorsed a line of Magical Girl products, they'll be able to afford another one of those shiny flying ships. Or, now that I think about it, organise a Meet-and-Greet with you girls. ”

“How stupid.” Feeu found a toy foam copy of Argent’s silver spear from a large cardboard box of other foam weapons. Closing her eyes and shifting her palms along the spear shaft, she produced a thrust with a Ha. But the result was less of a thrust and more of a wobbly noddle. She must have envisioned Argent’s elegant form because she had a scowl when she deposited it back into the box.

“I saw some wooden weapons further in.” Lust pointed and followed after Feeu who did not wait for her. “Well, I think it's brilliant. Think about it, if we make it a lottery system, where only those who purchase the official figurines would have but the slimmest chance to meet you all personally. Forget a flying ship, you’ll be able to afford a floating fortress.”

Incidentally, as they were bantering, they approached a certain curtain which had a ? pasted on.

Emergency! Lust hurriedly manoeuvred herself in between Feeu and the curtain to block Feeu from seeing it. She had originally planned to bring Feeu in, but after the scolding session, it seemed inappropriate at the moment.

“We’re not fighting for money.” Feeu, intent on finding the weapon section, passed a curtain oblivious to its nature.

Lust waited for Feeu to proceed before ducking her head in for a peek. The lewd section behind the curtain was at least twice as big as the public area. The shop got its priorities straight. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted something she had been hunting for a very long time. It was in her hand like lightning, the last blu-ray copy of [M Girl In Trouble ~ ☆ I Will Never Surrender To A Witch]. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. An instant addition to the basket.

“Regardless, someone will sell it if there’s demand,” Lust said when she caught up to Feeu in the weapons section. "And Magical Girl products have a very strong demand."

"Strong demand, ya say. . . Blah! The balance is terrible." Feeu cast a side glance at the basket before continuing to inspect a wooden replica of her claymore. bouncing it in her hands to get a feel for its weight. "But it's better than nothing. . . I see a certain genre has a very strong demand indeed. Ha! Destroy!"

“Woah, careful Feeu-chan.” Lust scooped her disk out of the basket in a hurry and held it over her head, away from the reach of Feeu's claymore. “Do you know how hard it was to find this?"

Feeu held her claymore at waist-level parallel to the ground. Shifting half a step forward, she unleashed a flurry of stabs and slashes at the heretical disk. Lust ducked and weaved, each time keeping the disk just out of dodge. Feeu, in a burst of frustration, shot flames from the tip of her wooden blade. But Lust managed to parry by forming a temporary crystal shield.

“Time out, Feeu-chan. If you keep going it's going to be bad. We can talk this o—Oh no! Sebastian, stop!”

While Lust dodged another slash, the full-face ominous mask and tailcoat of her butler materialised behind Feeu as if he stepped out from a different plane of existence. In full combat form, his blade was mid-thrust when he halted. Feeu naturally reacted, smoothly adding a half-body rotation to her downward strike. Momentarily distracted by the sudden appearance of Sebastian, Lust was unprepared for Feeu’s assault. The massive wooden claymore, cloaked in fire, smashed into the disk before continuing around and parrying Sebastian's surprise attack.

Lust watched in slow motion as the copy of [M Girl In Trouble ~ ☆] tumbled to the floor while magic fire ate away at it. She dived after it, but it was too late. It had already been reduced to ashes in her hands.

“Gotcha.” Feeu cheered. Her replica greatsword was locked with Sebastian's blade arm. But upon perceiving the Magical Girl had no intention of attacking his master, Sebastian reverted it to a normal arm and placed it on his chest in salutation. With no apparent threat, Feeu similarly returned the still-pristine sword to its rack.

Lust paid no mind to their interaction. She remained collapsed on her knees gazing devastated at the pile of burnt dreams.

Feeu wiped her sweat and said, “Good riddance, if that filth was allowed to—”

Still collapsed, Lust began to tremble and emanate a low chuckle, “Ufufu, the last copy. . .”

“A-Allowing it to l-leave, would—”

“FufUFUfu, fEeU-cHan,” The barely audible chuckle turned into sinister laughter as Lust swayed drunkenly trying to get to her feet. "dO YOu kNow hoW DiffiCult it iS TO FiNd A giRls-oNLy vIdEo iN a disGusTiNg ‘Fat orCs aNd uglY goBlins’ domInAnt MarKeT?”

“Hii!!! Ithoughtisawsomeonefamiliarletmegotakealook!" Feeu back away a couple of steps before darting away leaving Lust and Sebastian alone. She was not running away. Definitely not.

Lust stayed staring at the pile of ash for some time before she created a crystal box and carefully scooped the ash inside. “To destroy a priceless work of art, prepare yourself, Feeu-chan. I won’t go soft on you. So, why did you come Sebastian?”

Her masked butler produced a note from Vili.

“I see, thank you for bringing this to me. But next time, don't attack the girls unless I say so." Lust told Sebastian off. Scanning the note, it simply read, ‘Aur has found information on Gam's location.’

"Hmm. . . I can't dump my dates like this. . . It doesn’t sound too urgent, it can wait right. . .” Lust mused, writing back, ‘I’ll deal with it when I'm finished. Send Sebastian back if there’s an emergency.’

“Please deliver this to Vili and leave the box on my desk.” Lust handed Sebastian her reply and the amethyst box of ash. Sebastian bowed and turned to leave when Lust called him back, "Oh, and one last thing."

Lust looked around shiftily, anyone could tell she was up to no good, but luckily for her, there were no cameras in the vicinity and the owner was in the storeroom. She crept up to a large display of figurines, her hand was partway extended before she stopped and glared intensely at the pricetag like it owed her money.

"It's fine, right? I mean, the prices they're charging are ridiculous. There's no way I can afford them with my allowance and they aren't particularly special. I could make this quality if I had the time."

She tried to reassure herself as the well-made figurines of Argent, Aqua, Eisst, and Feeu gazed up at her cheerfully.

"Damn it. . ." Lust cursed under her breath and retracted her hand. “Sebastian, that'll be all, sorry for the inconvenience. You may carry on with your task.”

Sebastian bowed at his mistress’s words and watched her hurry away. He remained in position until his mistress turned the corner, out of sight. Fishing out a pocket watch and pressing its button, his form began to shimmer and his final thoughts before he turned completely invisible were of his mistress's need for money.

-

Lust widened her strides, as if she could not bear being near the figurine display any longer, and went searching for her lost Magical Girl. She found her easily enough, in the video aisle. Standing among shelves of old episodes of magical girl animes and secret (PG) recordings of Magical Girl fighting was Feeu.

Feeu did not respond when Lust approached. Even as Lust sidled up beside her, she stayed transfixed on a television. Showing on screen was a phone recording of a Magical Girl bashing apart demons with a pair of oversized gauntlets. Because of the potato quality of the recording, the features of the girl could not be distinguished, but that did not detract from the carnage she wrought. Each punch seemed to carry enough force to kill both the demon and the one standing behind it.

Lust had seen this video before. It had been circulating on the forums for the longest time and was the only proof of the existence of Magica Thera.

Magica Thera, the fabled title of one of the most mysterious Magical Girls. Information concerning the first generation of Magical Girls was, considering the situation at the time, sparse and fuzzy at best. However, sparse and fuzzy would be a clear summer’s sky compared to what was known about Magica Thera to the chagrin of many and one lustful Witch. The only thing known was that she appeared when things were most dire and reclaimed hope for Japan only to vanish just as suddenly. Many speculated that she died, but Lust would not accept it.

Feeu's expression was clouded over as she watched the battle on repeat.

“Do you know her?” Lust asked piercing the veil of contemplation.

“No. . . I didn't.” Feeu merely shook her head. But even as she denied it, she looked so lost. . . so vulnerable. The perpetually fiery girl teetered listlessly, where she was headed, not even she knew.

Lust felt she had seen Feeu's bizarre behaviour before. Combing through her memories, she landed upon the day when Keiko was stalking Imai Aya in school. Aya, from that day, and Feeu now had striking similar symptoms. Was Magica Thera also the cause of her previous daze?

It mattered not now. Lust crushed her burning desire to make Feeu hers, she did not Feeu to be angry at her for a second time today and, instead, focused on cheering her up. Her priority was to regain the playful atmosphere that she had worked so hard to cultivate. Taking the limp hand of a lost Feeu, she continued their exploration of the shop.

“Ooo, isn’t that cute?~” Lust presented a heat-sensitive mug with a chibi squad of Magical Girls.

“Un.”

“Feeu-chan~ I still haven't gotten you back for destroying my precious copy of [M Girl In Trouble ~ ☆]”

“Oh.”

“Look out! Martians have activated their Epsilon Matter Rearranger to destroy Earth!”

“Ok.”

Lust sighed after about ten minutes. None of her attempts at grabbing Feeu’s attention received more than a flaccid response. She needed another approach. And so, she cut their adventure short and headed for the counter to check out their purchases.

“Thank you and come again!”

The shop owner called out after them as they exited the shop. Lust and Feeu found themselves once more in the cramped basement landing.  After teleporting her procured items back to the mansion, Lust linked her arms with Feeu and brought her back up to the first floor.

As they stood at the edge of the expansive arcade, it was a world different from the dodgy underground shop. Bright lights and loud clamour, both organic and manufactured in nature, knitted into a tapestry of revelry. To which Feeu awoke to, her drifting mind returning to the present.

“Welcome back, Feeu-chan~ You shouldn’t be thinking about other girls when your lover is right here~” Lust teased gently. She did not want to pursue an obviously sensitive subject on their first date. Thus, she changed topics and said. “I wanted to bring you shopping for clothes. I imagine you don't have a wide variety. But for now, I think we'll do something fun.”

"Yar idea of fun is lame. Let me guess, it involves making fun of me somehow." Feeu bristled. It seemed coming out of her stupor made her more aggressive.

"Ouch, that hurt Feeu-chan." Lust groaned, "Weren't you having fun playing with everything in the shop?"

"N-No!" Feeu cried immediately.

"Setting aside the fun you had in the shop, I thought we could stay here for a couple of games."

“How stupid,” Feeu mocked, though, her eyes said something different as they gleamed at the many flashing machines. Without even waiting, Feeu headed for the biggest and flashiest machine, a popular shooter. Grabbing the gun for the hoister, she turned back and said, “I’m not paying for this.”

“Pff, so cheap.”

“Ya’re the one who invited me.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that you’re cheap~” Lust inserted some coins into the machine. “How about we spice things up with a competition? Best of five. If I win, Feeu-chan must get me another copy of [M Girl In Trouble ~ ☆] and watch it with me. If you win, I’ll—hmm—I’ll give you a present. Don’t worry it’s not lewd.”

“It doesn't seem equal," Feeu said as the starting sequence began to play.

"Don't forget you burned my precious. Watching it with me is your punishment or are you scared you'll lose?"

"Don’t go crying after I spank ya ass.”

“A spanking~” Lust laughed and, with a quick draw, shot the first enemy that rolled on the screen. “You’ll need to work harder to earn it~”

“Lucky shot,” Feeu snorted and fanned the hammer taking down the next three in quick succession. “Let the master show ya how it’s done.”

Fired up, both Feeu and Lust continued to mow down swaths of enemies the moment they appeared. Against their mana-boosted reflexes, those poor bastards did not even get the chance to shoot back.

Their whirlwind of destruction attracted much attention from the general arcade population. How could they not, when two beauties be dealing beautiful death? But the two were oblivious to the crowd, they were much more focused on stealing each other’s kills. It was the only way to gain an edge over the other. Their battle was tense, there was never more than a five-kill difference between them.

By the time they reached the final boss, Lust had the lead. But an untimely reload caused her to lose the last hit on the boss. She groaned as Feeu's points skyrocketed past hers. “I definitely dealt more damage. This is. . . bad design.”

“Ha, easy~” Feeu grinned and blew her gun enjoying Lust's salt. Her action elected cheers from the surroundings, particularly from the gamer girls who were drinking in her sexy toned body and tanned skin clad in a boyish attire.

Feeu: 1 Lust: 0

They struggled to duck out of the crowd. But when they eventually did Lust spotted their next game. A dancing game. Unfortunately, Feeu vehemently rejected the idea, citing the attention they drew from just playing a shooting game. What would happen when they begin to shake their hips?

“Then, let’s do some love fortune-telling.” Lust pointed at a garish pink heart capsule big enough for two participants.

Feeu took one glance and walk to the exit.

"Wait, wait, wait, Feeu-chan! That was a joke." Lust tugged Feeu's arm. "How about this?"

She pointed at a racing game, M* Kart. While she was not too familiar with arcade games, she at least knew of this. Meaning, there was a chance of winning.

Feeu agreed to play. After picking their karts, they waited for the countdown.

3... 2... 1... GO

Zooming around the circuit, Lust realised something terrible. Feeu was drastically more skilled than her. It was not as apparent while they were shooting because arcade shooting mainly focused on reflexes, but racing, Feeu had a sizeable lead going into the last lap.

That was when tragedy struck. As Feeu rounded the final corner Lust launched a friendship-ruining shell, it caused her kart to flip over but the lead she build was not so easily closed. Just then Lust obtain a second dreaded shell and sent it her way. That was enough to earn Lust the win and a lot of sodium chloride.

Feeu: 1 Lust: 1

Annoyed by her loss to RNGesus, Feeu prowled around for a game to trash Lust with. “Grr… where are the fighting games? What type of arcade doesn’t have Road Brawler IV.”

Lust knew the second floor was entirely dedicated to fighting console games. But she also knew better than to tell Feeu. From the sound of it, Feeu would easily defeat her if they played.

Instead, Feeu found a punching machine to vent her frustration. She inserted her own money, not waiting for Lust who paid for the last two games and gave it a swing. A loud smack echoed through the arcade and the numbers on the reading soared until plateauing at 999.

Feeu tilted her head to indicate Lust's go. Lust stepped up and another loud smack later earned herself the same max score. Their boosted abilities were practically cheating at this point.

Upon seeing the tie, Feeu grunted and selected a different game. The basketball shooting games, Pop-A-Shot.

“Winner first,” She said uncharacteristically allowing Lust to go first. She even paid for the round.

Interested to see where this was leading, Lust stepped up. Her cheating base stats allowed her to achieve a high score. She turned to Feeu and smirked, "Your turn.”

Her smirk did not last long as Feeu proceed to school her with trick shots, no-looks, underleg shots, and backwards overhead shots. All scored without touching the rim. Yet even when Feeu played around, she easily doubled her score.

The amount of Feeu’s smugness could only be compared to Lust's grimace.

Feeu: 2 Lust: 1

Acutely aware of the gap between their gaming abilities, Lust elected a lesser-played game in hopes of catching Feeu off guard.

Head-to-head Tertis.

Feeu was not too fond of her idea but played anyway.

Squiggly blocks, L-blocks, Straight blocks, Square blocks, Reverse-Squiggly, rained. They were neck and neck for the first few stages but as the speed ramped, Feeu began to fall behind. A miss rotation caused the three rows she was working on to be unusable. The mistakes angered her causing more mistakes and compounding the situation until she was crushed under the unrelenting blocks.

Feeu: 2 Lust: 2

"Feeu-chan~ It's match point~ Where's the spanking you wanted to give?"

Feeu snorted but from her half-smile, it was clear she was enjoying herself. "It's waiting for ya right here."

“Air hockey?” They were beside a large air hockey table. "Sure."

“Ya funeral.”

They each readied their hockey paddle for battle. First to 9 points. Lust paid for the game and the air began to flow from the sides of the table.

Lust served. The puck glided along the cushion of air before Feeu returned it. Their rally lasted for a good while, both sending the pucks down the table with a flurry of offence and defence.

1-0 .

2-0 . .

3-0 . . .

By the time it reached 4-0, Lust was forced to recognise Feeu’s superiority in the game. She needed to change things up. Her precious was on the line.

On the next serve, when Feeu blocked the incoming puck, a second amethyst puck darted into the goal.

4-1

“Watch out Feeu-chan~”

Feeu parried the normal puck along as well as the follow-up amethyst disk. She embedded mana into the first, wreathing it in flame. Lust tried to receive it but was unprepared for the force behind it. It knocked her paddle away and allowed the second to score.

5-1

“Did I hear a bone crack or was that ya dignity?” Feeu joked.

“fufufu~” Lust laughed along as she sent three pucks down range with one big sweep. Feeu parried them back, each having a trail of fire in their wake.

They had fun taunting each other while playing. The increased number of pucks to keep track of did throw Feeu for a loop but she would not be broken so easily.

Eventually, the score reached 8-4. Game point.

Feeu was extremely focused, she rebounded a puck through Lust’s guard but it, unfortunately, bounced out. It must have been at a bad angle.

8-5 .

8-6 . .

8-7 . . .

Something was strange. Why were her shots not scoring? Each time it came close, it bounced out. Feeu glared at Lust who had an unreadable smile. That was when she caught the faintest glimmer of purple hidden inside Lust’s goal. There was a crystal layer blocking her from scoring! Armed with that knowledge, she increased the mana in her strikes hoping to penetrate the defence but it held strong.

8-8

“Oh, Feeu-chan, you need to put your back into it if you want to break my hymen~ Because I couldn't feel a thing~” Lust hummed.

That taunt ignited a raging inferno in Feeu. Her mind suddenly felt clear, to her eyes the three fast-moving pucks slowed to a crawl. She hit them in quick succession, imbuing each with more mana than the last. They rocketed to the opposite goal. Lust, confident in her defence, did not defend. That was a big mistake. Because of the incremental mana she transferred to them, the pucks stacked together to form a single mass. As the mass smashed into the barrier, the force of the first was easily dissipated, but the second came right after causing some cracks to form. The third easily smashed the regenerating barrier and pushed the first two in.

10-8. Game. Set. Match. Feeu: 3 Lust: 2

“Mmmnnnnnnn. . . . . . Congratulations, Feeu-chan.” Lust sighed.

“Hahaha~ I haven’t cut loose like that in a while. That was fu—eh?" Feeu reached both hands over her head and stretched with satisfaction. But in her relaxation, she almost admitted to something she would regret.

“I’m glad you enjoyed yourself. I’ll give you your prize later.” Lust said, paying no mind to Feeu’s awkward pause. As they exited, the sun was setting. “Let’s have dinner. I reserved a fancy place but I don’t think you’ll like it. I think this place I discovered recently is more your style.”

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