19

I was faster than Taylor; however, a few minutes later, I slowed down to allow her to catch up.

Panting, she continued to walk, hands clasped above her head. Komainu was still skipping ahead. However, she had slowed down as well to not leave Taylor behind.

Through gulps of air Taylor spoke. "How are you so fast?" I flashed her a quick grin before lifting the amulet off my chest.

Wiggling my now skeletal fingers, I grabbed my right hand and detached it with a small pop. Holding it out, a shit-eating grin grew on my face as she paled.

"Need a hand?" I said while tilting my head as if I was winking, which caused the green flame in my right eye to go out for a moment.

I reattached my hand as she sputtered at the reminder that I wasn't human. Setting the amulet on my chest, we continued walking.

A few minutes later, Taylor mustered up the confidence to speak again. "I don't mean to be rude, but what are you?"

Shrugging my shoulders, I spoke. "To be rightfully honest, I have no clue." Looking at her perplexed expression, I elaborated.

"I have no clue; I am a skeleton with all that entails. Food and drink fall through me; however, I can also eat and drink."

Pulling the amulet up again, I allowed myself to blink; any outsider would have seen bone rapidly grow over the eye socket before retracting in a morbid parody of a blink.

Her face morphed into an expression of bafflement before peering closer. Shooting her a grin, I stuck my hands in the pockets of my hoodie and kept walking.

"How does that even work?" Taylor asked, baffled as she sped up to not fall behind. Doing jazz hands, I spoke as a shit-eating grin crawled across my face.

"Magic!" Glaring at me, she just huffed before replying, slightly annoyed. "That doesn't explain anything."

Giving her a side eye, I let the grin drop from my face before giving her a serious reply.

"The truth is my body is formed from dust and energy. That allows it to shift in minor ways according to how I think it should work. For example, people blink, so why can't I? Therefore, because I know I can blink, my body reacts accordingly."

Tapping her chin Taylor mused after I had finished my explanation. "So it's a I think therefore I am sort of deal."

"Pretty much," I said in reply as we entered the commerce section of the boardwalk. Spotting the small tea shop we had been at steered us inside and grabbed a seat.

As we started to order drinks, Taylor sprung another question. "What other stuff can you do?"

Holding up my figure to ask for a moment, I watched the waiter approach with our drinks before taking a sip from the mint tea I had ordered.

Taylor took a sip from her tea and seemed to relax slightly as her eyes looked into the distance, clearly remembering something.

Komainu, on the other hand, took a sip and scrunched her face before leaning over and whispering to me while making grabby motions.

"Sake?"

Sighing, I remember how that was something else Touhou seemed to like, Sake. It was a big deal as the primary alcohol in Gensokyo was sake.

Downing the cup of tea, I let out a sea before swirling my hand over it like a magician doing a trick; this caught Taylor's attention.

Letting a bit of Dust trickle out of my sleeve, I let it pour into Komainu's cup. As the Dust brushed by my fingers, I turned it into sake by focusing on what made sake, mainly fermenting rice.

Spilling through my fingers was a pale green liquid that tumbled into the cup; after I filled it almost to the top, I pulled the Dust back and pushed the cup of sake in front of Komainu.

Taking a long pull, she slumped back in her seat, a long sigh escaping her mouth. Taylor looked back and forth between me and the now full cup.

"How?" She asked in that tone of voice somebody uses when trying to keep calm but is on the verge of exploding.

Looking her in the eyes, I very slowly raised my hands and did jazz hands once again with the reply of magic.

She slowly placed her head in her hands and let out a loud sigh before glaring at me. She couldn't, however, hide the minor twitching of her lip.

Letting a fond slip on my face, I took another sip of tea content in the relaxed atmosphere. We spent the next few hours simply talking over tea and, in one case, sake.

While Taylor shied away from anything relating to school or other friends, a touch of hypnosis ensured that she was relaxed and growing more comfortable with my presence.

Soon I wanted to get back and start work on the Lisa project, so I stood up and stretched out my hand for a goodbye shake.

"I had a good time; want to do this again sometime?" I asked as she took my hand.

The smile that had settled onto her face grew slightly as a glimmer of hope appeared in her eyes. "That would be great."

Giving her a nod, I picked up the mostly incoherent Komainu and tossed her over my shoulder before setting down a small stack of bills and walking out.

Strolling back to my lab, I had a grin on my lips. It was nice to kick back and just chat with somebody.

The added benefit of getting possibly the most powerful parahuman in the world under my sway was just a benefit.

Laying Komainu on the bed I had made and tucking her in, I walked over to the small circle that held Lisa.

I had a couple of ways to approach this. I could use the tried and true method of threatening her: do what I want, or I'll kill you.

That was, however, highly inefficient and, as seen in canon, would most likely end with me dead.

The other option was attempting to hypnotize her. My rank C magecraft gained from EMYIA's class card should allow it.

However, it was not foolproof, and having my possible information nexus snapping out of it would be a disaster.

My best bet would be to hypnotize her and then put her under the guard of my minions. I knew that Cu-lite could use runes. However, I had not explored its whole skill set.

As I was musing, I could feel the Grimoire build up again. As the power grew, I saw a small ornate fountain pen with a brilliant sea green gem enclosed at the end appear in my hands.

I also felt something else. The small white heart that had resided inside my chest since my first few days here was pulled out.

It was a horrible feeling, and I collapsed. My SOUL entered the gem causing it to light up; the color was brilliant and filled me with hope.

As I flipped my Grimore open, that hope turned to despair. The first line of my new power, Soul Gem, caused my metaphorical heart to sink in my chest.

I knew what this was from, and peering at the gem, I saw the very start of the corruption beginning to overtake the gem.

The beautiful green had a small smudge of black near where the pen and gem were joined.

Breathing in and out, I pulled on Magus Education to calm myself down. This was bad; however, I was much less likely to die in a single hit so long as I could react in time.

Holding on to the pen, I pulled on the latent energy stored in the gem, and with minor darkening, I felt change take hold.

Peering down at myself, I was clad in long red robes with green trim. A long staff topped with a purple and dark blue crystal was held in my right hand.

Looking into the mirror, I had made the other day; I beheld my changed form. While my physical form of a skeleton was unchanged, the illusion amulet seemed to conflict with the new barrier I had.

I looked like a skeleton with green flaming eyes clad in a long red robe that ended just above the ankles. I had no shoes on, and staff as tall as I held in my right hand.

This outfit was identical to the one worn by my first and favorite DnD character, Liam Smith. This was concerning but not more so than any other changes the Grimoire brought on.

The benefits were nothing to sneeze at either. This form cost very little upkeep, and so long as I had a method of clearing my grief, I could maintain it indefinitely.

I was also surrounded by a barrier that blocked attacks and could take quite a few hits before shattering. The gem would also spend energy to heal me automatically and could even revive me so long as I had enough.

The downside was that I was not a lich. If my soul gem were destroyed, I would die. However, so long as it was safe and supplied with energy, I would be tough to kill.

Twirling the pen between my fingers, I dismissed the transformation and tucked the pen away in my hoodie pocket. Lisa could wait; I needed to find a method of restoring energy without needing Witches.

The same method used to charge my gem would not work as it relied on both gems being the 'same' and required a ritual circle.

Reaching into my chest, I pulled out the small Shard. Just holding it filled me with HoPe. Placing it next to my soul pen, I saw some of the darkness begin to be leached out.

It was a fairly slow process, and transforming again showed that while it broke, even heavy use would deplete my soul pen.

Speaking of my soul pen, I had not tested what my magical girl powers would be. Hefting my staff, I pulled on the energy clasped in the pen.

Four blasts of crackling blue purple energy slammed into the wall and blew through it. Eyes wide I ran over and peered out.

Nobody had been hurt, and a quick flick of my wrist along with some Dust fixed it. Looking back at my soul gem showed that it had taken almost no enegy for that blast.

I knew what that was; it was Eldritch Blast, one of the staples in Liam's playbook. My eyes quite literally lit up at this thought.

It had been two years since I had formulated Liam's character, and seeing even something as simple as a spell from his book made me giddy.

I decided to ramp up my next spell, the staff was quite clearly his Staff of the Magi, and so by tapping it on the ground, I tried to cast Wall of Force.

Reaching out my hand, it hit an invisible barrier. My soul gem showed that Wall of Force took quite a bit more energy. I guessed I had around ten or so casts by eyeballing the remaining amount.

If this were Liam's staff, it would have a few more tricks. I tested the first my attemping a Distengrate, something not in the standard staff.

To my glee, the Wall of Force vanished, and my soul gem reported that it took a smidge more energy than the Wall of Force.

The last test would be the most dangerous. Liam's last modification before the end of the campaign had been to jailbreak the summon elemental spell.

The jailbreak allowed one to spend one charge per CR they wanted to summon. It allowed Liam to summon a leviathan in order to besiege a city.

A several hundred feet long water monster would draw undue attention, so something smaller was in order.

I didn't have access to the Monster Manual, so I had to try to remember elementals to call upon.

Tapping the staff on the ground, I focused on the idea of a Frost Salamander. Lizards over ten feet tall would be easier to summon.

To my joy, a Frost Salamander crawled out of an icy crack that appeared in the ground. Rubbing its snout, I dismissed it back to its home plan before allowing the transformation to dissipate.

My soul pen was just under half full, so I set it next to the Shard of a Selfless Wish to allow it to regain spent energy.

It was currently around noontime, which meant I had a full day ahead of me. I had just finished dealing with the new power I got, which meant returning to dealing with Lisa.

Approaching the circle, I scuffed it with my shoe and waited for her to wake up. As she bleary opened her eyes and saw me, she scuttled back before slamming into the back wall.

Giving her a grin, I extended my hand before speaking to her.

"Hey Sarah, want a job?"

Powers Gained

Soul Gem

As part of your contract with Kyubey, your soul has been partially separated from your body. It is contained within a tiny gem with a color and aesthetic matching your personality and your wish...well, what WOULD have been your wish if you chose a background, or just a look that 'fits' for Drop-In. The benefits to this state are as follows:

Unaging - You do not physically age from the point of your contract onwards.

Magical Body - You can transform into a Magical Girl form by activating the Soul Gem, where it will rest on a part of your body either embedded onto your skin or as a piece of jewelry (it can remain in this form in your 'civilian' persona, as well). This creates a 'projection' around your physical form that is much more physically athletic and can take a lot of physical punishment with only some of the damage and the pain. Being knocked around or juggled by a powerful Wraith is still an unpleasant and painful experience, but you'd have a good chance of surviving the first few attacks instead of immediately dying like an ordinary person would. It's in this form that you can use your Magic, detailed below. Even better? As long as your Soul Gem is still intact, you can use magical energy to regenerate your body even if you were just a smoldering pile of ash, though this takes time and is a huge drain on your resources - you're more likely to disappear without a full 'tank' of energy ready than completely regenerate from a single cell. You will also be conscious through the entire experience, so...try not to get to that point.

Magical Girls, Represent! - As a bonus, your 'transformed state' has a neat costume and aesthetic of your choosing. It doesn't change its function, but if you want to wear a pretty dress into battle or look like an armored knight of some kind, you can. Just note that what you choose remains the same unless you find another way to modify it.

That said, this isn't all sunshine and pink dresses. There are some downsides.

No Wish For You - I'm holding onto that wish of yours until we're finished with your chain. Believe me, it is not worth cashing in here.

Energy Requirements - Everything I explained above, and the Magic it powers, is a product of the Soul Gem. The Soul Gem only has so much energy to spend and for the duration of this jump, you can only regain energy by using the remnants of Wraiths after defeating them. While you generally won't have to worry about this if you pick your fights wisely, using a huge amount of power or coming back from atomization will put you in the red fairly quickly. Your mood will also dampen and become increasingly manic and depressed the more severe your energy deficit is. This also ties into…

It's Called a Soul Gem For A Reason You Moron - The Soul Gem literally houses your soul. If you're separated from it (more than a small room's distance would do it), your body will drop dead and start decomposing, utterly helpless until the Gem is returned to it. You have no motor control or awareness in the Soul Gem itself, to boot. What's more, it's amazingly fragile and if destroyed, will instantly kill you. Hm? You can survive this somehow? Then your Soul Gem will reform with you, but it will lose the same amount of energy needed to restore your body from the ground-up. You'll need to 'refill' quickly.

Game Over - If your Soul Gem is destroyed (without some way to cheat death) or you exhaust all of your energy, you suffer the same fate as other Magical Girls and vanish from existence.