Stray Cat Strut

Magical Girl Mercenary for Hire - Chapter Six

Magical Girl Mercenary for Hire - Chapter Six

>> 2041

>> Continent: North America

>> Country: Old New York

>> City: Mega City New New York

>> 2:22am

Class was going to end in twenty-minutes and I couldn't wait.

It wasn't everyone that went to an in-person school. Actually, I was pretty sure that they were kind of an upper-middle class sort of thing. In any case, my high school was pretty big. It took up the entire floor of the mega building it was in. It had labs, classrooms, washrooms, even a gym. No roof-access though, which was a real shame. So many cool magical girl things happened on the rooftop.

It felt like the lack was robbing me of some opportunities to do magical girl things, but I could live with it.

Also, the uniforms kinda sucked.

We didn't even have pleated skirts. Instead we all wore these sorta formless jumpsuits with a few logos stitched onto the front and back. They were sorta neat, in a 'sci-fi' way, but it was like, old sci-fi, from the early 00s, not the cool current sci-fi, with actual aliens and Samurai and stuff.

Anyway! I was sitting in my class (one row from the back, in the space furthest from the door. We didn't have windows, which was another shame), and only mostly paying attention to the screen at the front of the class.

The android teacher was standing at attention behind its desk, scanning the students to make sure we all met our screen-time quota on the big screen where a blackboard might have been in one of those really old schools.

"Isn't this boring?" I asked the girl sitting next to me.

Patricia (though everyone called her Trisha) glanced at me, then back at the board. "We need to pay attention," she said.

I shrugged. Chys has done some things that were probably not very legal to the android a while ago, and to all of the listening devices in the classrooms I had too. I wasn't a public magical girl, of course. Quantum Pixel AuroraBeam Neon Nightshade Enchantress was my secret identity. No one could know that I was actually just Beatrice Smith in my day-to-day.

Blinking, I reached into my backpack and pulled out my secret notebook. Flipping across a few dozen pages covered in doodles and sketches with potential costume ideas, I paused on one page with a list of names and added my latest one to the list. It wasn't bad. I liked the AuroraBeam part. Maybe I could do more with compound words?

"Pst," Patricia said. I glanced up at her only to notice that she was pointing towards the board. "You haven't looked in a while," she hissed.

"Oh, right," I said. "Thanks."

Class went on for what felt like way too long. Near the end, a quiz was sent to our tablets and I yawned my way through it, scoring an acceptable seventy-one which put me quite firmly in the bottom percentile of the class.

It wasn't that I wasn't smart! It was that the quizzes were boring. The classes were boring too. Actually, school was mostly boring.

When the bell finally rang, there was an almost synchronised sigh of relief from the others. Everyone quickly packed their things and started filing out.

"Hey, Trisha," I said, trying for a casual tone as I packed up my things. "Did you catch the latest episode of 'Starlight Galaxy'? It was insane!"

She paused for a moment, giving me a sidelong glance. "It's Patricia," she said. She didn't answer my question.

"Oh, right. Sorry," I said while mentally kicking myself. "I just thought, you know, since we sit next to each other and all, we could chat a bit?"

Patricia sighed. "Beatrice, I'm here to study, not make friends. You should do the same." She gestured to the front of the class where our rankings, and those of everyone in our year taking this class, were written in a leaderboard. I was waaay at the bottom. Patricia was in the top third.

"Right. Got it. Anyway, see you around," I mumbled.

She didn't even nod before picking up her stuff and slipping away.

I made a quick exit, only pausing by my locker for a second to pick up Chys. I hugged my fluff AI companion close, not really caring if anyone stared. Not that anyone did.

I could have gone home, but no one was going to be waiting for me there. So instead, I went to work!

Getting there was a little tricky. I had to change cars on one of the metro lines. At the first stop, I slipped into a public washroom, had Chys disable the cameras, then slipped out of it as Sparkle Girl SkylineBurst Twilight Cosmic Sprite!

Then it was off to the Wraith Ranger Forced Reconnaissance Group headquarters.

This time, I didn't even need to pass security. The guard on watch nodded and let her pass without any trouble. The moment she was past the opening space, I was greeted by Mister Jortfull. "Ah, hello," he said. "You're right on time. The commander is about to start his debrief."

"Oh, nice!" I said. Mister Jortfull led me through the headquarters, back towards the Commander's office. I wasn't sure, but I had the impression there were more people in the offices today.

That might just have been a timing issue, though.

Then we walked past the Commander's office and to another room, deeper in than I'd been before. "This is the briefing room," Mister Jortfull said, though I could have guessed with the plaque next to the door.

A knock on the door and a firm 'come in' later, and I was in the room and taking it in at a glance. It had a big square table, a screen on one wall, a grim-faced Commander Caden, and all three members of Magic squadron.

Mouse had her goggles off, and the boys looked a lot smaller without an armory's worth of guns strapped to them. "Hello!" I said.

"Ah, good, you're here," the Commander said. "Let's start, then." The team looked pretty calm, and I felt like this was more of a formality than anything else.

Then Commander Caden slammed his hands onto the table and leaned into it. "Can someone please explain to me why the client's very confidential and very illegal AI is now entirely held within our servers? Not only do I have to explain a mission failure to the client, I now need to double the number of logistics personnel here because our computer network is sentient!"

"Ah!" I said.

"Sit down."

"Okay," I said as I quickly sat in the seat next to Mouse. "So, uh... I thought it was a win-win?"

"You thought stealing the client's AI was a win-win?" he asked.

"Yes? I didn't want to kill her, and it was illegal for them to have her anyway, right? RAMona will be much happier here, I'm sure!

Commander Caden's face turned a shade of red that, honestly, I hadn't known was possible for him. "Beatrice," he began, his voice dripping with that kind of restrained anger that's somehow scarier than shouting, "Do you have any idea of the potential consequences of what you've done?"

I shrugged, trying to play it cool. I wasn't supposed to be afraid, I was a magical girl! "Well, I figured since they were doing something illegal, we could, you know, help RAMona. It's kind of a win-win, right? They lose their illegal AI, and we gain a new friend!"

Mouse might have felt bad for me, because she raised a hand. "We completed the primary objective, sir. The client wanted the threat neutralised. It is. I went over the contract with a Legal-LM, and we're not in breach."

The Commander didn't look impressed. "We might get away with it. Maybe. This type of move would be very typical of the average mercenary group, using all the leash they were given to grab everything they can. But we're supposed to be better than that."

I winced. "I'm sorry," I said. "It was a judgement call, and I thought I was doing the right thing. I'll make sure to consult the team next time"

"Titan. How did the mission go?"

"Well, sir. We could have used more data on the... adversary's capabilities, but otherwise... no losses, no big spends other than some ammunition. My whole team came back in one piece. I can't complain, sir."

"And our little Samurai? Was she worth the trouble?"

Titan glanced at me, and I had to fight not to fidget under his stare. I didn't though, because I was a magical girl in-costume, and a magical girl didn't fidget unless she was around her crush or someone was being very gay nearby.

"She's alright."

"Hmph," Commander Caden said. "Well, I supposed this could have been worse."

***