It was rare for us to get a job in the states for three reasons. Magical girls, despite appearing worldwide, mostly seemed to be concentrated in Japan. Being Japanese ourselves, this suited us just fine. The second reason was that very few employers were able to pay our very steep “getting military grade weaponry across international borders” fee. So imagine our surprise when an offer came in from a small town in New England from a company I’d never heard of. The last was that, over the years, the price for our services had grown steadily higher as magical girls had gotten stronger, more pragmatic, and most of all, stopped falling victim to the weaknesses that at first seemed inherent to their nature.

‘We’re heading where?” Aika asked, no doubt wondering how much school she’d have to miss on our little excursion. “Bishopsville.” Itami replied, stoic as ever. “Asylum hired us.” ‘Yeah, and they even hired their own plane. Looks like a piece of shit though” I said, looking out at the runway at the old plane they’d told us to use. “Looks reliable enough” H responded, having the sense not to be transformed quite yet; her BDSM getup would be glaringly obvious in an airport after all. The captain of the plane, an, old grizzled man, waved us aboard and, somewhat reluctantly, we did.

“Is this where we’re supposed to meet? I asked no one in particular as I surveyed the area. The place we were supposed to meet our client’s representative was a park near a high school. I supposed there were worse places to meet, with school in session, it was as far as I could see, almost vacant. “Indeed, it is.” A polite female voice said, waving to us in casual clothing from a nearby bench. “Come, sit.” We did so, not seeing any reason why not to.

“There are two magical girls I need dealt with.” She said, looking straight ahead, not caring to introduce herself. Many clients did the same, obviously not wanting the assassination of children to be traced back to then. “Tell us about them.” I said in return. “You see, the thing is, this isn’t about the asylum.” The girl said, staring straight ahead. “Yes that is important, but the main reason I want them dead is because they killed my older sister.” As for abilities, they fight tactically, and tend to exploit their opponent’s weak points, but your normal ambush strategy should work well against them. “So they’re who we need to kill?” Aika asks, by now transformed into Pretty Deadly. “No.” The girl said simply.

Before any of us could respond, She snapped her fingers, emitting a bright, blinding light, followed by what can only be described as a gunshot. When I regained my vision, Aika, my girlfriend, was slumped over, leaning on me, clutching her arm, which had been blown off just below the shoulder. I didn’t have time to help her though, if I tried we’d all be dead and we wouldn’t have a chance. The girl we were just talking to stood in front of us, wearing a brilliant green dress, wielding a sword and shield made of hard light in a defensive stance. “The magical girls I want dead are Pretty Deadly, and Sailor H” she announced quickly and plainly with none of the long-winded speeches typical of most of our targets. I tried anyway, drawing my pistol and firing off rapidly as she spoke to little effect as she blocked the bullets with her light shield.

“Haba, Lotus, move in. help with whip girl. Dandy, Cherry, hold off the other two. Ignore other” She said, backing off as Itami drew and fired his own weapon. I looked around for the other threats and realized we were surrounded. In this brief second, however, a pink clad magical girl raised a barrier of brambles and thorns between us and Sailor H as two others moved to engaged her. “On it, Lily!” one said, dashing across the park as the girl in green, apparently Lily, started dueling H, staying just far enough away that she couldn’t wrap her up with the whip, seemingly being pushed back. Itami and I tried to cut through the brambles, only to get slammed into them by a strong gust of wind. Another girl had been behind us. I reached back with my gun and fired off a few shots at her. She seemed surprised I could even move in her wind and took a bullet to the leg, dropping to the ground as it gave way and clutching her wound. I tried to aim to finish her off but as I did, the vines lashed out and pulled may arm away at the last second. Fuck.