[Title Needed] - OC TF/MC (Patreon)

(Contains kitsune-tf, tengu-tf, mind-control) 

Most of my patrons are probably familiar with my recurring OCs, Hikari and Izanami and a bunch of others. This story is the first of what should hopefully be a series of actually having a coherent plot to go with them instead of disconnected bad-ends and tfs. I actually had this done a while ago, I just have no idea what to call it. Still don't know, so I'd appreciate ideas for a series title! 

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In a realm between the living and the dead, there was silence. Nothing stirred. Nothing thought. Nothing breathed. It would have been easy to mistake this for the end, for death. But the realm had an occupant. The being hadn’t moved in millenia. It hadn’t had a thought in centuries. For most intents and purposes, it would be considered dead.

But it was not.

It was waiting.

Waiting.

“What in the… guys, I found something!”

The box was ancient. It was a small, stone box, so worn by the ages and the pressure that the only sign it wasn’t just a rock was the hollow noise when it was tapped, and the barely-there, illegible paper seal. Kyotaro, Japanese archaeologist, was ecstatic at the find. The box was unremarkable, but the seal - it must have been over a thousand years old, miraculously preserved. And he was sure that it must have been one of the earliest examples of paper charms recorded.

While Onmyōdō and other ancient magical traditions had for the longest time been historical curiosities and footnotes, since the founding of Matsushita city and the explosion of magic onto the world stage, they’d been taken a lot more seriously as objects of study. While clearly most cases would still be exaggeration and misunderstanding, it was obvious there was magic in the world now, and there probably had been in the past.

The dig site was said to be a place of great significance to ancient Japanese magic practitioners, and the government had authorized the excavation in the hope of discovering something that could potentially be useful.

Kyotaro wasn’t able to decipher the writing on the charm - it was faded, barely legible. Still, he took great pains to document it from every angle with the highest possible quality he could manage. “Someone come here with a container, I need to bring this back to the lab…”

As he spoke, he felt… a strange urge. To open the box. Because he needed to see what was inside, right? As one of his assistants arrived, he took a pair of tweezers and carefully pulled the paper off the box, placing it in a container held by a confused looking assistant.

The being stirred. A single eye opened.

Kyotaro swallowed hard, as he ran his hands along the box, trying to find the lid. “There we are…”

It was awake.

---

Hikari woke up screaming.

Izanami had been asleep. She wasn’t in control of the body so she could do that whenever, but there wasn’t exactly anything interesting to watch with her host’s eyes closed. She had been having a nice enough dream, and the wake up call was sudden to say the least. “Goddess, girl, what the hell is it?” Izanami shouted. They had each other’s surface level thoughts, but she couldn’t read deeper.

Hikari didn’t respond, sitting curled up in her bed and rocking back and forth. It had been months since the unintentional bonding of Hikari and Izanami after the former fucked up the latter’s ritual to drain magic from this world and caused lethal backlash on it’s caster. Izanami had forced herself into Hikari’s body and tried to take over, but Hikari’s will was too strong to do it without her consent. Being as disgustingly pure as she was, Hikari had felt bad about what had happened to Izanami and offered to split time in the body. If it had been anyone else, Izanami would have already taken over completely.

It struck Izanami then what she was seeing. She couldn’t look out of her body to see what Hikari was doing, but she could feel it. She was scared. Terrified. It wasn’t the first time that the magical girl had had a bad dream, of course, but those times she rarely stirred enough to wake the witch in her head, and if she did wake up she just took a few deep breaths and went back to bed. That wasn’t what had happened this time.

Izanami heard the door burst open, and though Hikari didn’t turn to look she could hear the voices of Hikari’s parents. She felt hands on her back, and since Daichi walked around in front of the bed (was that a… a shotgun? When did he get one of those?) the one behind must have been Yoko.

“Hikari? Hikari, what’s wrong?” Yoko asked.

After making sure he didn’t see anyone leaving through the open window, Daichi leaned back in. “Yoko - does the amulet… usually glow like that?”

Hikari always wore her amulet, the object that let her transform. In bed, in the shower, everywhere - she was never without it, and even transformations left it with her, either as part of her new form or modified to fit it. It was glowing, then - a harsh, red light.

“I… I saw so much… I…” Hikari gasped, before she swallowed hard, and Izanami felt that she was trying not to puke out of fear.

“...Stay with her for a bit, Daichi, I have to make a call.” Yoko said. He looked like he was going to protest, but instead he nodded.

In the headquarters of the Magical Girl Association, Chihaya Nakano was buttoning up her business suit, having not even had the time to take off her pajamas before putting it on. Normally, she’d have the head of whoever called her so late on a platter. This wasn’t normal.

“Talk to me, Saito.” she said, sliding into the Director’s seat at the back of the command center.

“We don’t know much yet. Massive surge of magic in the Kyoto suburbs. We have no clue what caused it, but the background magic in the area after it is closer to downtown Matsushita than standard Japan levels. The event happened thirty minutes ago.”

Chihaya swore under her breath. Her phone had been going off since she woke up, and she looked at it now. Calls from their sister associations across the world, three different calls from her counterpart in Japan, and one from one Yoko Himura, who as far as everyone else on the list was concerned would be just some random middle aged martial arts instructor.

She called back the last one. Because she had never called Chihaya before, always relaying messages through her daughter. Miss Himura was an ex-magical girl, and more importantly, the mother of quite possibly the most powerful magical girl currently alive. And unless this was the wildest of coincidences, that meant that she knew something had happened without having been told by Chihaya.

“Where did it happen?” Yoko said, cutting the pleasantries.

“Normally, I would have to respond that I can’t answer that. Civilians and all.” Chihaya said flatly.

“But you’re actually good at your job and don’t want to make me come over there and beat it out of you with a bo staff.” Yoko said. “Where was it? Jerusalem? Athens? Rome?”

“Kyoto.” Chihaya said.

The voice on the other end pulled away from the phone, but Chihaya could still hear her swearing up a storm. “Damnit, I was afraid of that.”

“And when, exactly, do you plan to tell me why that is?”

“You know it runs in the family, for us, right? It runs way, way back. We started out hunting malevolent yokai in Japan.”

“Right. Female line. Amulet. I know this all.”

“These days, most magical threats are either people with magic and a lack of morals, experiments thereof, or occasionally an artifact gone haywire. Back then, there were real monsters. We don’t have many records of the old days, but we do know the family sealed a lot of big, evil monsters in very small boxes. If I had to take a wild guess at it, some idiot just opened one.”

“How did you even know something happened?”

“My daughter woke up screaming. We have a connection through the amulet to our ancestor’s works. She got hit hard; a seal somewhere was broken, and it wasn’t a nice yokai that got let out.”

Kyotaro was in a daze, as the smoke filled the room. A shadowed silhouette stretched out in the smoke. “Ah… how long has it been?” a feminine voice said.

“Wha…” Kyotaro managed. He felt someone press against him, one of his research assistants shaking in her boots. His mind was slow, and sluggish. A tremendous pressure on it, making it hard to gather his thoughts. Something… bad was happening. He… shouldn’t have opened the box.

“P-Professor… what did you do…?” His assistant whispered.

The figure stepped over to one of the windows, opening it and giving the smoke an avenue to escape. “Wow, the stars have changed so much… hundreds, no, thousands of years must have passed…”

The smoke began to clear, and as it did, the silhouette vanished. “Oh, well, it’s certainly been long enough that my physical body’s rotted, I see…”

With shaking hands, Kyotaro fought his body, trying to make it move. He couldn’t even see the… whatever it was, but he still felt it’s presence and power. He hit the speed dial for emergency services for magical disasters.

“Well, we’ll have to fix that. How about… you? Consider it a thank you for your service; you get to be far more important than a random minion.”

Kyotaro felt his body seize up, forced to his feet as the pressure increased ten-fold. Something was pushing against his mind, pressing. He had heard descriptions of brainwashing before, but they’d been nothing like- he couldn’t finish the thought. His mind shattered under the strain, swept away by the power of the aggressor he couldn’t even perceive.

“P-Professor?” The assistant shouted. “Professor, wake up, it’s me, Ai”

Kyotaro stood rigidly still for several moments, eyes rolled back into his head. Then he relaxed abruptly. “...I hear you…” his voice said, but there was something… wrong in it.

“We need to go, get someone, we need to get the police here- Ah!”

Kyotaro’s body reached out and grabbed Ai by the head. She too, felt the sudden pressure, an intrusion sifting through her mind. “I see… I see...  interesting. I wasn’t gentle enough with this one, so your knowledge is appreciated, human. You get a reward, too.”

Light enveloped the woman’s body, and Ai found her own mind cracking under the pressure, her own body morphing. She could offer no noticeable resistance as the spirit occupying Kyotaro’s body forcefully overwrote Ai’s body and soul. As the light faded, what remained was an entirely different being. Wearing white-and-red shrine maiden’s clothes, and with distinctly vulpine ears and a long, fluffy tail, Ai fell into a praying posture. “Thank you for making me yours, my goddess… I am not worthy…”

“You’re right. You’re not. You’ll have to suffice, though.” The ex-Kyotaro said, looking down at their own body in disgust. “Human. And male at that. It won’t do.”

Kyotaro’s body warped, while the newly made kitsune watched with reverence. His figure turned softer, more feminine. His shoulders less broad, his waist and hips curvier, his legs longer in comparison to his body. Body hair below the eyebrows vanished in an instant, as his hair grew out and out and out until it nearly touched the ground. “Getting there,” the former-man said, examining his fingers as they grew slender and feminine.

“It takes time to craft a form as beautiful as yours, Goddess… it’s only a show of how divine you truly are.” Ai said obediently.

“I’m sure.” The spirit grumbled, as their form continued to shift. Their face shifted next, going from Kyotaro’s manly face, to a more androgynous look, and eventually out and out feminine - and a gorgeous feminine face at that. Their voice pitched upwards as their neck followed their limbs in it’s feminization, matched down below as the last sign of masculinity on them pulled inwards and was replaced by a feminine slit. “Better. Good to be a woman again.” she said, as her bust grew out and her bottom grew in equal measure, straining the former archaeologist’s clothes.

The transformation didn’t stop there, though. Her ears crept up the sides of the head as they changed in shape and gained fur, becoming distinctly more vulpine as they did. Her clothes seemed to practically shred themselves, whirling around her in a vortex of cloth as they changed composition and color to white silks. They reassembled themselves into a bone-white kimono on her body, complimenting her figure.

The kimono had a moderately sized hole around the butt, whose purpose was made clear as a fox tail sprouted from her rear - and then another, and another, until she had four white-furred tails spreading out from her kimono like a flower in bloom. She looked over her rear, frowning. “Hm. That’s not quite right. I seem to have lost a bit of power, over the centuries…”

“Fear not, my Goddess. Not that you can feel fear, of course. You are still amongst the most powerful beings currently living, and that is not simply my devotion speaking.” Ai said.

“Oh?”

“As you must have seen in my mind, until recently, magic was forgotten by much of the world. There are few Yokai and other supernatural beings in modern times, and fewer still that are not man-made; the defenders of this era have never had to face one such as you, and have grown weak in their time of peace.”

Rather than be happy about this, though, the kitsune seemed… angry. “No! I can’t allow it… what good is vengeance if the descendants of my enemies are swatted like flies? What honor do I restore, by dominating someone who compares to their ancestors as a child playing dress up to a hardened warrior?”

The kitsune’s changes finished, as her hair bleached to white to match her fur, and her eyes turned silver. She took several deep breaths. “No matter. I will still have my vengeance, one way or another. But…” a smile crept across her face. “It would hardly do to take it alone. There were others… the Mistress’ other servants, and of course, our Mistress herself…”

“Your vessel had been searching for ancient relics, much like your prison, Goddess.” Ai said. “I can help direct you to other likely sites he identified - he was a mere human, but one good at his profession. As well, if those you seek are still actively practicing magic, they can be easily identified and located.”

“Hm. Yes. Such are the conveniences of your modern world. A weakness to rely on them, but I’m not so prideful as to refuse the aid.”

“My Goddess shows wisdom.” Ai said, bowing deeper.

“I will hope that my old enemies have remained strong. But if not… I’ll remind the Himura clan of their past power, and their past crimes. One does not cross Masami and expect no retribution…”

“Are you sure you’re ok? Mom told me about last night…” Natsuki asked.

“I’m sure, I’m sure! I don’t even remember the dream, honestly.” Hikari said.

“Considering how your mom acted,” Izanami said flatly, “That’s not a good thing.”

Hikari shrugged. She did feel fine, really! She didn’t remember much of the dream, besides what it made her feel. A feeling of existential dread like she’d never known. Scared. Terrified, even. And… for some reason, just a bit powerful? That bit was confusing, maybe it was from an earlier dream.

Her mom had fussed over her, and her dad had insisted on staying in her room as if she were five years old again. It was nice to know they cared. She’d been saying something about Japan and the magical energy spike and talking with Natsuki’s mom, but Hikari had been practically petrified at the time and barely heard her. She’d eventually gone back to sleep and when she woke up at noon was feeling like nothing had happened.

Her mom did want her to try and remember what it was that she saw. She said it was super important, so Hikari would give it a go, but really the most clear details she got were emotions and colorful blurs.

She and Natsuki were having lunch in a park, Natsuki having prepared some food and insisted they take the day to relax after hearing about Hikari’s rough night. And honestly? It was working. Hikari felt really relaxed, more so than she had for quite a while.

As they chatted away about little nonsensical things and stayed pointedly away from anything connected to Hikari’s dreams, they hardly noticed the person walking up to them until she was right on top of them. “Greetings.”

Hikari paused with a sandwich halfway to her mouth. “Hey. Can I help you with something?” she asked.

“Well, that depends. My name is Sutoki. You wouldn’t happen to be, uh, what was the name…” she took out a pen and paper and squinted at the name on it, muttering something about handwriting. It was a Japanese woman, albeit an odd-looking one - she was startlingly pale, and had bright green hair that somehow didn’t look dyed. She was short and thin as a reed, to the point Hikari nearly thought she was a teenager if it wasn’t for her odd but distinctly adult bearing and sharp but definitely adult features.

“I have a bad feeling about this.” Izanami said flatly.

“...Right, here it is. You wouldn’t happen to be Hikari Himura would you?”

“Yeah, I am, what can I help you with?” Hikari asked. Izanami was a worry wart, but to make her feel a bit better Hikari stood up and stretched.

“Dunno. Boss wasn’t clear. Probably dying?”

Hikari ducked before she consciously planned the motion, and it was a good thing she did - a blade of wind sliced the end of her hair as she crouched down, and kept on going to slice through the tree behind her. Before the move was even complete, she lunged forward - Sutoki was right up close and stumbled back as Hikari tackled her, suddenly feeling very lucky that her mother had been so insistent on physical training to compliment her magical abilities.

...Of course, she still wasn’t very good at it, with some months under her belt while her mom had had years. She had good reaction times, but wasn’t good enough to capitalize on them yet - nevermind that she hated hitting people physically, and had been trained with a wooden sword not her fists. She tackled Sutoki to the ground but lost her own footing. “Move!” Izanami shouted in Hikari’s mind, and the magical girl rolled to the side just as something sliced up where her face had been.

Leaping to her feet with a bit of magical assistance, she found herself stepping back and grabbing at her amulet. Sutoki wasn’t quite… human, anymore. The illusion, or maybe out and out transformation, had dispelled itself, revealing what she really looked like. Most of her was still the same… but she didn’t have arms, just huge avian wings, while her legs turned into bird-like talons from the knees on down.

Hikari took the momentary disengagement as a chance to trigger her own transformation - her casual clothes quickly replaced with the admittedly still casual-looking magical girl outfit, a staff forming in her hand and magic filling her body.

“Great! That’s great!” Sutoki laughed, the tree she sliced in half falling over as Natsuki scrambled for cover. “It would have been so boring if you just let me take your head off there! Of course, if you were so easy to kill, you wouldn’t be worth anything more!”

“What the heck are you doing! That could have- why-”

“Ha! Things really have changed in the last couple millenia if you’re surprised I tried to kill you!” Sutoki said, a cruel grin playing over her lips. “What weak world is this where that’s strange? What kind of games do you play here that you call fights?”

“I don’t even know you! Why do you know who I am!?” Hikari shouted.

“You don’t know me, but your ancestors did! They locked up me and so many other Yokai… has the world become so backwards you can’t recognize a Tengu when you see one? Of course, I didn’t used to look like this, but you work with what you got...”

Hikari took the opportunity to sling a blast of magic at the monster, who yelped and took to the air to dodge it. “Well fine then!” Hikari called up to her, “If you want a fight, I’ll give you a fight!”

“That’s more like it! Let’s see how you compare to your predecessors, huh? Test 1! Flying skills~” The bird-woman spun in the air, and launched off across the park. The wind in her wake actually blew Hikari off course for a bit, forcing her to take a minute to reorient.

“Be careful, this one seems stronger than you’re used to…” Izanami said.

“I appreciate the concern.” Hikari said, “But… what’s she talking about? Why is she so strong? She doesn’t seem like the usual magical villain or constructed monster.”

“I’m not concerned for you, I’m concerned for my current body.” Izanami scoffed. “It seems likely that this monster is related to last night’s incident.”

The Tengu was fast and had a head start, but she wasn’t exactly hard to follow in the open sky - at least, until she swooped low into the street.

She might have been old and a bit more murderous than most enemies Hikari had fought - but in the end there were some things that hadn’t been any different then as they were now.

Natsuki had run from the fight - she did promise not to intentionally get transformed, and since they’d been planning for a day off she’d left her gear behind. Of course, she was with Hikari, so she should probably have expected an interruption.

She was just getting out of the park and onto the street when something swooped in from above. The self-proclaimed Yokai hovered in front of Natsuki, blocking her path. Most people didn’t notice, but some did. The smart ones started running, while the tourists started taking pictures.

“Hey, you’re a friend of Himura, right?” Sutoki asked.

“Uh, yeah…?” Natsuki said, sighing. Well, she hadn’t tried to get turned into a minion this time.

“Will she be upset if I make you mine?”

“Honestly? More annoyed than anything. It’s not exactly uncommon.” Natsuki said.

Sutoki blinked in confusion. “Huh. Weird. Still going to take you though.”

“I figured.” Natsuki just shrugged. “It’s kinda fun, actually? I promised I wouldn’t get intentionally minionized, but hey, if you’re doing it anyway, could I make some requests?”

“...Wow, you really are used to this.” Sutoki said. Humans of this era were weird.

Still, she wasn’t not going to take her just because she seemed nonplussed about the prospect. Sutoki gathered up her magic and threw it at Natsuki in a green-glowing whirlwind.

Natsuki disappeared into the swirling winds, and inside of it, the magic began to take effect. Without any magical gear to improve her resistance, she didn’t last all that much longer than any other civilian would have.

She felt herself swept off her feet by the forceful gale. It battered against her body and mind, before sharp feathers swirling in the wind shot forth and embedded themselves in her extremities. Oddly, it didn’t hurt - it felt sort of nice actually. She didn’t have the presence of mind to notice how her hands started to shrink inwards, while her shirt sleeves bulged. When the pressure grew too great, her shirt seemed to rip apart to reveal brown feathers rapidly growing out from her arms, while her arm thinned as it went from a human arm to the basis for a wing. They grew quickly, primary feathers, secondaries, and more bit by bit as her wings grew out.

At the same time, her legs were changing, growing hard and thin and bony below the knees. Toes merged and grew out into talons, nails turning to wicked claws. She lost the ability to bend at the knee, but she wouldn’t exactly need it anymore - no, her feet were for attack, not for walking. Feathers grew out at more places than just the wings, quickly spreading across her chest and crotch and covering the important bits now that her clothes were gone.

But as the physical side of her transformation completed, the mental began. The humanity was blown from Natsuki’s mind in nearly an instant. And, the thoughts whispered to the bird in the making, who needed it? Why choose to be a land-bound human when you could be as free as a bird? Or rather, as free as a Tengu? A crazy smile formed as the chains of morality and responsibility fell away. The only responsibility a Tengu had was to herself! She could do what she wanted, take what she wanted, be what she wanted! Or if she wanted to she could listen to her boss Sutoki, but that would only be because that was what she wanted to do - Sutoki was so good at finding new sisters and shinies…

As the wind blew past, the human girl it had consumed was replaced completely, a new Tengu gliding to the ground in its wake. “Hey boss!” Natsuki said cheerfully, “There’s so many humans around here, huh? And so many shiny things! What’s next?”

Sutoki smiled. “No plan. Just have some fun~” she said. She looked down the street as people started to run, and prepared another blast of wind.

Hikari managed to catch up with the yokai, finally. She would have to work on her flight speed… in any case, it had become evident that for all she spoke about the ‘monsters of this era’ being too simple, she seemed to enjoy much the same thing - turning people into her minions. Unless each and every one of the half-dozen bird girls turning the formerly well-to-do neighborhood inside out was a yokai.

“Seven, actually,” Izanami corrected, as two of the avian women converged on a woman who had neglected to take off her heels to run better, sending out gusts of green wind that rapidly turned her into one of them.

“Well… that’s kinda annoying, isn’t it?” Hikari fumed. “She was all worked up about fighting me but she got a bunch of minions to do it. Hypocrite.”

Sutoki herself was nowhere to be found, at first - but she burst through an attic window in one of the town-houses, now clad in a bunch of silver. “Look what I found, girls! It’s so shiny!”

“Hey, I found it too, boss!” A familiar-looking tengu grumbled.

“Oh, I was wondering where Natsuki went.” Hikari said.

“Hey, that’s my minion she’s messing with!” Izanami said. “Go take her back. She’s mine and I don’t like sharing.”

Hikari rolled her eyes. “Alright, alright…”

She landed near the gaggle of Tengu, who didn’t seem to notice her presence at first, too focused on their boss’ new acquisitions. Well if they didn’t pay attention, that was their own fault - she started to charge up some magic.

Sutoki noticed just in time. “Scatter!” she shouted, and leapt into the air. Her minions obeyed, but two of them were too slow and got clipped by the blast anyway.

Hikari turned to pursue Sutoki, but found herself stumbling forward as something hit her from behind. She lost her footing and found herself being tugged along by a whirlwind, feeling the magic start to seep in - but she had a bit more resistance than your average civilian, and a means to escape. She flew out of the whirlwind before it could do too much damage. Looking for the source, she saw that the two minions she’d blasted were still active. “What?”

“Ow, ow…” one of them groaned, “Boss was right, you are strong!”

“It looks like ‘stronger than we’re used to’ applies to the minions, too,” Izanami said. It was a rare minion that could stay conscious through a blast of Hikari’s magic - usually, if they were a threat, it was by sheer numbers or trickery.

A chirping laugh sounded from above, and Hikari saw Sutoki watching her with the rest of her minions in formation behind her. “Well well! Another test passed, you’ve got some magical resistance on you! And that blast before, I’d clap if I had hands, impressive! Maybe you’re not as worthless as you look! Let’s see how you deal with something easy...” She looked at her minions, and gestured down to Hikari. “If one of you knocks her out or transforms her, you get all the rest of the shiny things in this neighborhood.”

The five tengu in the air along with the two Hikari had blasted all cheered, and quickly Hikari found herself in a more serious fight than she’d had in a long time. The tengu had three primary means of attack, it seemed - wind magic, throwing razor-sharp feathers, and their talons if they got close. There were seven of them - which wasn’t many compared to many minion groups Hikari had fought, but when each of them was strong enough to actually do damage, that was enough to be a real problem. They were fast enough that Hikari had trouble landing direct shots, and durable enough to take a few clips or near-misses from her blasts. They were slowly and steadily wearing her down, and making her wish she’d bothered to learn how to put up a magical shield like most other magical girls did.

“This isn’t working.” Izanami said flatly, as another beam of magical energy missed the brainwashed Natsuki by a hair.

“I know! It’s annoying!” Hikari grunted, taking off again to avoid a pincer from two of the minions. “Usually I’d have blasted them unconscious by now!”

Izanami sighed. “We need to get them to stay still. Think of a way to do that.”

“Right, ok. Hey-”

“I don’t mean asking them politely.”

“You never know if you don’t ask.” Hikari said, but she relented. How could she distract them… what would distract them… “Hey, there’s like, insurance or whatever for if things get wrecked while fighting villains, right?” Hikari asked. “You paid more attention at the last meeting than I did I think…”

“Yes. Miss Nakano emphasized that it wouldn’t do to have a magical girl lose their fight because of concern for damaging the surroundings.” Izanami said. “What’s breaking things going to help with? It’s not like you’ve been trying to avoid collateral damage so far. I count at least two smoking craters and an expensive car that looks more like a crumpled tin can.”

“Great!” Hikari  said, before sending out a sweeping beam of magic at the birds all around her. It didn’t hit, but she hadn’t expected it to - it scattered them, and gave her some breathing room to dash off into the most expensive-looking house she could see.

“Close quarters to restrict the numbers advantage? I appreciate the tactical thinking, but I doubt they care anymore about collateral than you do. The walls will be coming down shortly.”

“Oh, that would be a good idea…” Hikari muttered, as she dashed through the house, looking for something specific…

Sudoku and the minions were surrounding the house Hikari had entered. “Did she run away?” the Tengu asked aloud. She didn’t seem the type, and it would be disappointing if she did… but then, it might be fun to have the run of the city…

Just as she was about to order her minions to go in after her, Hikari burst out through a window on the second story. “Sorry for the wait, guys!”

The birds all looked straight at her, unblinking. But it wasn’t the look of a hunter looking to their target… it was the look of a half wit looking at something interesting. Namely, the number of very shiny things Hikari had bundled in her arms.

Hikari hoped they’d figure out who all the jewelry belonged to later - there was probably an engraved name or something. But the important thing was she’d gotten their attention. “Hey! You guys like the shiny stuff right? Well, whoever grabs it gets to keep it!” she shouted, before channeling some magic and throwing the pile of gold and silver into the street below.

The tengu descended on it like vultures, picking out the shiniest pieces and bickering over who got to take what. “...Huh.” Izanami said. “You actually thought of something more tactical than ‘blast it’ for once. I wonder if I’m rubbing off on you.”

Hikari ignored her, and charged up her magic once more. Sutoki descended on the tengu. “You idiots! Move! Move! It’s mine until I say-”

The blast lanced out of Hikari’s staff and sent birds and jewelry alike flying. None of them had noticed it coming, too enraptured by the shiny bits, and the direct hit combined with the incremental damage Hikari had inflicted earlier managed to knock the whole seven of the minions out. If Sutoki had been a bit faster, she’d have been hit too.

The Tengu landed, and whirled around to face Hikari. “You… you can’t take advantage like that…'' she grumbled, blushing, before shaking her head. “Nevermind! You took out the minions, so let’s see how you do with the boss!” she shouted, lunging for Hikari with talons out. Hikari ducked and managed to singe her feathers with the return blast, but Sutoki had no plans to slow down enough for Hikari to hit her. She whirled around mid-air, and sent a blast of scything winds her way, circling and continuing to send wind after wind her way.

Hikari countered, narrowly missing another blast of destructive magic before she had to dodge a chevron of razor feathers thrown at her. She was getting tired, and while her magic prevented a lot of pain from coming through, some of it was beginning to wear on her. She had to end the fight quickly.

Sutoki, for her part, was clearly getting frustrated. “Just stay still! And stop shooting back!” she shouted, before charging down Hikari once more. This time she got up close, and stayed there, clawing at Hikari and trying to bring her down. “Not so tough when I get close like this are you?”

Hikari tried to fend her off, her staff the only thing between her and the sharp claws. She had an idea, though… or at least the same idea again. She ducked out of the way suddenly, causing Sutoki to stumble forward, and before she could recover Hikari pulled out her family amulet - the item that let her transform… and a rather shiny object.

For a moment, Sutoki was transfixed. Just for a second. And at that range, that second was enough for Hikari to push the end of her staff up against the bird-woman and blast. Sutoki flew back like a rag doll and landed hard, knocked completely unconscious.

Hikari looked around for any minions she’d missed, and checked to make sure the Tengu was really knocked out, before breathing a sigh of relief.

Far away from the city, a kitsune let her scrying spell fade as it’s target was knocked out. “Interesting.” Masami said simply.

Ai bowed deeply. “I’m sorry, my Goddess. I should have investigated further, so that we could know of her strength. I will accept any punishment.”

“Think nothing of it.” Masami said. “Sutoki was always the weakest of Master’s favored followers. That’s why she was the test. If Himura couldn’t defeat her, then being an air-headed Tengu would have been an appropriate fate. It’s reassuring to know that not all of the old world’s strength has faded.”

“Of course, Goddess.” Ai said. “Your wisdom is great as always. Shall I wake the next Yokai and prepare for them a host?”

“Mh. Yes, you do that. I would like to observe the fight further.” she said. The shimmering image in the air left behind was of Hikari’s face, intense with concentration. Masami felt there was something about her… familiar. Not that she was so similar to her ancestors, although that was part of it. Something rather more intriguing…

“So, what did you want to talk to me about, Miss Nakano?” Hikari asked. Chihaya had called her to the magical girl association’s sublevels, where they kept brainwashed and controlled victims until they could be recovered, as well as investigating the powers of captured villains and monsters.

“The latest monster you defeated was different.” Chihaya said, cutting straight to the point. “It’s… more difficult than usual to restore their victims.”

“Yeah, some monsters are like that.” Hikari said. “What’s weird?”

“These are people who have been transformed for an hour at most. They’re as resistant as people who’ve spent a month in the thrall of a villain or monster. It’s… good, that you saved them so quickly.” Chihaya said.

Oh. Natsuki…

“My daughter will be fine in time.” Chihaya said, as if reading Hikari’s mind. “For some reason, it’s not sticking to her as much as the others…”

“That’d be my influence,” Izanami said. “She’s such a devoted minion of mine it’s hard for other conditioning to stick.”

“Oh, that’s good.” Hikari said. “What’s the problem, then?”

“The real concern is this ‘Sutoki’. We’ve found her in the records. She’s an archaeologist from the United States. One with no magical powers whatsoever, and a different name - Barbara Bridger.” As they spoke, the pair approached a one-way window into a cell where a certain Tengu was bound. “This power… isn’t normal. She’s been corrupted in a way much like minions and monsters made from people. Usually, we’d have reverted her to human by now. But… watch.”

A man and a woman that Hikari recognized as two of the MGA’s top healers entered the room, and quickly and efficiently set up their ritual. They couldn’t hear Sutoki, but her expression made it clear she was mocking them. As the ritual began, they watched Sutoki writhe in her restraints as her wings became human arms, her talons becoming feet. Her skin darkened a few shades, while her hair went from green to blonde. She looked like she was back to normal.

And then, the moment the restoration ritual ended, she started to laugh, and in a flash of light Sutoki was back to a Tengu.

“What was that?” Hikari asked.

“We can’t turn her back.” Chihaya said. “The healers don’t think this is a normal corruption. They think that ‘Sutoki’ is an entirely different entity from Miss Bridger. They’re not entirely sure if there’s anything left to restore.”

Hikari nodded dully, looking at the Tengu. Sutoki looked right back at her, despite the one way glass, and smiled.

“Something’s wrong here. Something is very wrong…”

“Looking at that… I don’t think it’s unlike what we have going on.” Izanami said. She wasn’t interested in helping, but as a matter of academics it was an intriguing problem. “If you were a bit less stubborn, then that’s basically what would happen whenever someone tried to turn you back.”

“We think this is connected to last night’s events.” Chihaya said. “After the first spike, there was another two hours later. We suspect there will be more.”

Hikari swallowed hard. “I don’t think I mentioned it… but the place I fought her isn’t the first place I saw her.” Chihaya raised an eyebrow and gestured for Hikari to continue. “She came to me and Natsuki in the park and asked who I was. She knew my name. She was here for me. Monsters and villains never have that much intention to them, do they?”

This wasn’t the end of it, then. This was only the beginning...