Fate?

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Daisuko Kuze." A soothing voice comes from somewhere close by. It takes her a moment to realize that her eyes are closed so she opens them. Greenery colonizes her vision. Around her is a vast garden filled with colorful flowers and lush grass. Under her feet and above her head are the floor and roof of a luxurious gazebo. Its frosted glass top is just enough to shield her from the sunlight. And sitting across from her is a blonde girl wearing a tube top with her hair tied up in a rough ponytail. She has a serene expression as she looks at her garden. Her garden. Daisuko doesn't know how she knows that the garden is hers but she feels it in her bones that this place belongs to this girl. And she's just an intruder.

"Where… am I?"

"You're dreaming." The girl says nonchalantly. "And I'm… 'intruding' on your dream."

"Is this real?"

"Less real than real but still real if that's what you mean." There's suddenly a box of chocolates on the table. The girl takes a powdered truffle and pops it into her mouth. "They're delectable, try one."

Daisuko places one on her tongue. Sure enough, it's tasty. The chocolate powdered surface cracks and gives way to a lush, smooth creamy interior. She takes her time spreading the chocolate along her tongue, enjoying it as it melts.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're quite beautiful?" The lady touches her knuckle to her lips.

"What do you want?" Daisuko asks bluntly.

"Hm?"

"I've heard people call me handsome before. But never beautiful." Daisuko shrugs. "Which means my first instinct is to assume you want something from me."

"You're not wrong. But just so you know, I do know a beautiful woman when I see her." The girl smiles somewhat awkwardly. "Regardless, I need your help."

"What's in it for me?"

"Someone's excited. At least let me buy you dinner first." The girl smirks. "How about this? I can bring back the dead… sort of."

"That's way too convenient." Daisuko gives her a wry, distrustful smile. "Who are you?"

"Confession time. I'm an ICMG Major. Specifically, The Lady of Osaka." The girl throws up her hands. "An ICMG Major that's not exactly liquid right now. It's a bit of a cycle. I do my job well, crime goes down, the ICMG sees I'm doing well so they cut my budget cause I don't need it, as a result I have to do my job even better to compensate. Repeat ad nauseam."

"Uh-huh."

"So I need magical girls to serve under me but I can't offer money. That's 90% of the pool of potential girls just gone. Add on the fact that I can't actually resurrect people, only create spirits that are imitations of those people in life and that's even more people gone. Finally, the Lady of Tokyo's gotten to a few girlsI intended to recruit. All-in-all, I'm left with five girls who might be interested in my offer."

"I see…" Daisuko pinches her chin. "Why not just lie? If your imitations are as perfect as you say, why can't you just lie to people?"

"Let's just say I don't like liars and leave it at that." She smiles.

"So, you're telling me you can bring back Shosuko's parents?"

"As I said, I can only create imitations of who they were in life. Perfect imitations but ultimately, they are only imitations." Wisps of smoke suddenly materialize around the girl's hands. She plays with them and they play with her.

"I see." Daisuko cradles her fingers and rests her head on them.

"So what say you? Are you in or out?"

"I'm in." Daisuko leans backwards, forgetting that the stool doesn't have a backrest and nearly falls out of her seat. "So long as Shosuko doesn't know that these are just imitations, they should be enough to get back onto her good side."

"Very good."

"So what's the job?" Daisuko winces. "Probably should have asked that before agreeing, but whatever."

"Step one. I need you to conquer Ozawa City under my flag and then defend it from outside forces."

"What kinds of outside forces?"

"The Lady of Tokyo will send her I-C's to conquer the city. I expect maybe around thirty."

"Thirty?!"

"It's only a rough estimate. There might be less. And they won't know you've been planted within the city. You'll have the element of surprise on your side."

"...I see. Then I should have it done within the week."

"That's not fast enough."

"That's as fast as we can go."

"That's how fast you and your sister, Oka, can go. If you factor in the blessings I'll bestow upon you two, you should be able to do it within the day."

"Blessings?" Daisuko's smile turns nervous. "You're not going to do anything extreme, are you?"

"The process of incubation can be defined simply as the modification of the human soul. What I'm doing is not incubation but can be defined the same way. You may think of it as… attaching a prosthetic."

"Aren't prosthetics meant to replace things that have been lost?"

"Then we'll have to… make some space." The girl grins darkly. "Though, of course, you're free to back out if you can't stomach it."

"No, no. I've already made up my mind." Daisuko's eyes are filled with a grim determination. "I'm going to bring back Shosuko's parents and make things right. No matter what."

"That's what I wanted to hear." The girl extends her hand to Daisuko. "Let's shake on it."

"Sure. I'm certain this is a gesture of goodwill and nothing more."

As her fingers brush against her wrist, the girl grabs her arm.

"Ah, there it is." Daisuko sighs. "This is gonna hurt, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Sorry about this." The girl plunges her other hand into Daisuko's chest, her fingers crashing through her ribcage and her fingernails touching her heart. She expects a prickly, electric kind of pain but what slams into her feels completely different. It is the sensation of forgetting something important. It is the sensation of growing up at the speed of light. It is the sensation of witnessing an act of God and understanding your helplessness. It is a terrible kind of pain.

"「Fuinjutsu - Spirit Seal.」"

She hears something like laughter caressing her ears. Then everything goes black.

Daisuko wakes up to a peculiar sight. Her right hand appears to be wrapped around her girlfriend's neck. She isn't squeezing, though, so this is just a very awkward attempted murder. What the hell did that girl do to her?

"Daisuko?" Her girlfriend stares at her funny. "Um… what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to kill you." Where the hell did that come from? The words didn't cross her mind, they just slipped out of her mouth, like someone put them there. "Ignore me, sorry, I'm not feeling too well."

"Ummm… I'm going to go home." Her girlfriend awkwardly starts to sidle out of bed when Daisuko's arm moves on its own, pinning her down. "What are you–?!"

"I don't know, I don't know!" Daisuko rolls over to the side, using her arm to wrestle her other hand back into behaving. Only now does she realize it's covered in black tattoos. "You need to go, now!"

"Why? What's happening to you?!"

"Just go!"

Her girlfriend picks up her clothes and rushes out of the bedroom.

Aw, you're no fun.

Those words come to her as though she thought them herself.

That girl was gorgeous. I'd have liked to kill her myself.

"What the hell is this? Some kind of mind-altering Jutsu?"

For the record, I'm not just an illusion. I really am in your head. The voice seems almost playful. I can see your memories. Every. Single. One.

"Who are you?"

Just a passing spirit bound to your soul, doing our mutual friend a favor.

"..."

Okay, fine. I don't remember, alright? But I really am here to do our mutual friend a favor.

「???」- Nameless Treacherous Spirit

"The Lady of Osaka?"

Yep. She figured that her precious magical girls needed a boost so she called upon me. I was chosen because she thought you and I could get along. I should warn you in advance, I have some murderous tendencies.

"Yep. I noticed." Daisuko has to pry her own hand off of her own neck as it so desperately tries to strangle her. "How do I get you out?"

Awww, but I was being so charming.

"Just tell me how, dammit. I don't need someone piggy-backing off of me to do my job."

The short answer is that you can't. Only our highest Lady can perform such a feat.

"Great."

And don't even think of killing yourself. If you do, we both die.

"You're the one trying to do that, dumbass!"

I can't help it. It's in my nature.

"But if you kill me we'll both surely die!"

Lol. Says the Spirit. Lmao.

"How do you even know those words?"

Like I said, I can see your memories. It's hard not to see them, actually. It's why I can speak to you in Japanese. So I've decided to start slipping some modern lingo in my speech.

"Just don't overdo it."

Anywho, are we having breakfast or what? I'm like, really starving. I haven't eaten in like… a thousand or so years.

"Stop trying to kill me first."

What else am I supposed to do with my hand?"

"This is my hand."

Whatever, just entertain your king with something marginally more entertaining than trying to kill you and I'll stop.

"'King?'" Daisuko spits the words out incredulously. "You're the one freeloading a body!"

It is an insult to my greatness, is it not? Having to settle for a third rate body like this one.

"Oh come on, A waist this snatched deserves at least second rate."

Yes, your waist is quite infatuating. But I would have just preferred a man's body.

Daisuko rolls her eyes. "You know, feminism is the standard for most people nowadays."

I know, I just don't care.

"Whatever." Daisuko opens a drawer with her teeth and fishes out a little spinning fidget toy she bought on impulse once.

What is that thing?

The hand snatches up the toy and starts playing with it.

Fascinating. How does it work?

"Fuck if I know. Ball bearings and whatever inside."

Alright, I've been placated.

"Finally. Can I have breakfast in peace now?"

What're we eating?

"There is no 'we.' I'm eating."

We're sharing a body so what you eat is what I'm eating as well.

"That's… weird."

Daisuko heads down to the kitchen, trying her best to get used to her new 'soulmate'.

What is this?

"This is an omelet." Daisuko pours the scrambled eggs into a buttered pan. The spirit goes silent as it watches Daisuko shred some cheese, add some onions, cut up some ham, and sprinkle the omelet with a dusting of pepper.

"Shit. I forgot the salt." Daisuko quickly grabs the salt shaker and sprinkles it onto the egg.

You're using too much salt.

"Don't tell me what to do. This is how I like my omelets."

No, I just meant that you're using an awful lot. How do you afford to use this much salt?

"...Ah that's right." Daisuko snaps her fingers. "Salt was a luxury back then, wasn't it? Well, it's become pretty commonplace in modern day."

Fascinating.

Her hand moves on its own again. It grabs the salt shaker. "What are you doing?"

It then proceeds to stuff a pinch of salt into Daisuko's mouth. She immediately flinches backwards and spits it out. "The hell was that?!"

I always wanted to try tasting pure salt.

"Yeah? And how was it?"

Nasty.

Daisuko drinks some water to wash out the taste before folding the omelet and placing it on a plate.

"Et voila. Breakfast."

Excellent.

Daisuko sits down and begins eating. Which is a lot more stressful than it should be.

Eat bigger slices. Chew faster. Drink some water.

"I got it, I got it, relax, alright?" Daisuko complies with the spirit's demands one at a time. Somehow, even just having breakfast has become a pain in the ass.

Excellent. A feast for all the senses. I demand another.

"I'm not eating another omelet. It's almost summertime and I'm trying to get a proper beach body."

I demand another.

"La la la I'm not listening!" Daisuko covers her ears pointlessly as she prepares another omelet. "This one's for my sister."

Very well. Then we shall have another omelet at lunchtime.

"We're having fried rice for lunch. We have some leftovers we need to eat before they go bad."

What is this… 'fried rice?'

"...Literally just rice that's been fried."

Fascinating. The modern world is full of wonders.

"Oka! It's time for breakfast!" Daisuko calls out, hoping her voice reaches upstairs.

"Just a minute!" Oka's voice echoes back through the near empty house.

Is that your sister?

"Yeah. Why?"

Let me go pay her a visit.