Capture Target

Sexy Magical Warrior Purple Rose, defender of the world of Radianta, stared at the figure before her.

In front of her was a young woman -- a bit short -- with nice curves.  She had long blond hair that had a slight wave, pale skin, and was wearing a sailor fuku patterned with black and dark purple.

Purple Rose had found herself here, in this space of stars and sky and a serene flat ocean as hard as metal, sitting in a homely wooden chair she remembered from her childhood.

And across from her, perfectly mirrored down to the weathering on the wood chair, was another Purple Rose.

Mirror Rose sat, leaned forward with elbows on her knees, hands clasped over her mouth, with an expression Purple Rose found hard to read.  She wasn't saying anything, just staring forward at Purple Rose.

After several more seconds of silence, Purple Rose felt an increasingly ugly scowl come over her face.  "...I asked to talk to Dignity."  Purple Rose said, clenching her hands into fists.  "Is that you?"

Mirror Rose flinched, then lowered her hands and flashed a wan smile.  "No, it's not.  Sorry.  I'm thinking.  It -- mm."

Mirror Rose shook her head, slapped her cheeks, and straightened up as she put on a tight smile.  The smile of a person trying to relax and act natural, and hopelessly failing.  "Alright.  Here's how the boss explained it to me.  Think of me as an alternate timeline version of you.  One that the boss split off when you made your request, and told everything possibly related to what we want, in exchange for me agreeing to a magically binding promise to keep the secrets that the boss wants kept."

Mirror Rose smiled wider and looked Purple Rose in the eye.  "But I want what you want."  She said, and melodramatically placed her finger over her lips in a dramatic gesture of hush-hush secrecy.  "And the boss told me how we can get it."

Purple Rose narrowed her eyes.  "...Really?  And how do I know you're not just some illusion to give me the runaround until I stop caring about my brother?"

The smile dropped off Mirror Rose's face.  Her chair creaked as she grabbed the armrests with her hands, her knuckles white from force.  "Fuck you."  She hissed, leaning forward.  

Mirror Rose opened her mouth to say more, but then she caught herself, clenching her teeth and tensing up.  She shot a glare at Purple Rose as she slowly straightened in her chair.  

"...That was a test, wasn't it?  Okay.  I get that.  And also, really, genuinely, fuck you."

A silence settled over the starry magic-space.  Purple Rose glowered back at Mirror Rose's glare, but she felt herself relaxing, and then found herself fidgeting as she began to think.

"What happens to you after this conversation is over?" Purple Rose asked, voice soft.

"I stop existing."  Mirror Rose said, with that same tight smile.  "Unless you need this again, in which case, another you is split off just like me to play middleman again."  She switched to a fierce grin.  "And I don't know about you, but a little existential crisis doesn't really matter to me next to getting back our -- sibling."  She said, and Purple Rose frowned at noticing that odd stumble.  "Now are you in, or are you all talk?"

Purple Rose glared, then hesitated, and then pressed her lips together and gave a small nod.  "Yeah.  I'm in.  What do we need to do?"

"The boss has a deal for us."  Mirror Rose said, and seemed to not be able to help a relieved smile.  "A magic contract.  You fulfill your end, and the boss will put you as close to getting what we want as they can.  Mini will be who goes and talks to the boss again after this conversation, and for god's sake, stop questioning her, she genuinely cares as much as she acts like and knows as little as she says.  Now, the terms are… how to put this…"

---

Purple Rose jumped from rooftop to rooftop, uncaring that her miniskirt in her uniform would let others see her panties if they just looked up.  Easily keeping up with her was Mini, the chibi doll clone that was her familiar.  

“Come oooon, smile!”  Mini says, floating to the side of her head without a care in the world.  “Smile!  You’re a pretty -”

“Sexy,” Purple Rose interrupts, making Mini roll her eyes.

“I still don’t get your obsession with… fine, you’re a sexy magical girl."  Mini pouted.  "A scowl isn’t what the people need from you!  Smile!  Show your pure heart and innocence!”  She flailed her elbowless arms for emphasis.

Purple Rose gave Mini a sidelong glance.  “I know you’ve seen my internet history.”

Mini opened her mouth to respond -- before she slumped.  “...Yeah… But!"  She rallied, puffing out her chest.  "You can still inspire everyone else!  A doll can dream!"  

“A doll can not, in fact, dream.”  Purple Rose retorted with a faint smile as they finally reached their destination.  

The top of a three story building, across the street of which was a skyscraper that has ants the size of men crawling all over it.  

People were screaming and running away, or getting far too close for comfort with their smartphones to take videos and pictures.

"Sometimes I don't want to save the stupid people."  Purple Rose grumbled.  Yes, like every magical girl she had lots of magic for shielding people, and even more for herself personally, but the distraction still just sucked while fighting.

"I know."  Mini said, with a tone of strained pleading.  She flitted in front of Purple Rose and looked up with puppy dog eyes.  "Please save them anyway?"

Purple Rose snorted, smiled, and glanced down at the massive ants, the Bugs of the World, that had slipped through a Crack in Reality.  Given time, they would turn this skyscraper into a massive hive, designed to produce more bugs and monsters that would, unless stopped, eventually destroy the world.

And stopping them was why she was here.

Purple Rose twirled her spear, and leveled the heart-shaped spearhead as she braced for a super-jump lunging thrust -- before she noticed the Cute and Pretty Dragon Squad jumping in from the west.

…Purple Rose glanced at the ants, and frowned.  "Mini, does the boss want me here or checking for smaller outbreaks?  The squad should be able to handle the main outbreak."

Mini twitched, and took on the exaggerated robotic body language and retro-digitized voice she used when acting as Dignity's terminal.  "Sufficient force allocated to defeat main outbreak, bzzt.  Purple Rose reassigned to hunting secondary outbreaks, bzzt."

"Got it!"  Purple Rose said, and turned to start jumping rooftops going in the opposite direction of the incoming team.  Hitting secondary outbreaks solo would pay more merits than sharing the main outbreak's payout anyway.

---

"I don't get it."  Purple Rose said to her doppelganger, frowning.  "You're saying the boss doesn't want me to succeed…  But they're still going with this contract?  Why?  This isn't really making me trust them, you know."

"It's not a scam."  Mirror Rose got a dead serious look.  "If we get our wish, you get -- enough of the truth to be dangerous.  Not just to the boss, to our sibling."  She clenched her hands into fists and glanced away.  

"...Look.  If we, if you mess up, you could get all of you, our sibling, and a ton of other people killed, or worse than killed.  There's a plan, okay?  And you going in will be risking all of it."

Purple Rose got very, very quiet.

"...You still haven't answered my question."  She said, forced herself to say.  "Why?  Why do this at all then, if I'm just -- not even useless, worse than useless?"

Mirror Rose gave a wan smile.  "Because we're not useless.  We can help.  And…"  She paused, and rallied.  "Dignity is crazy intense about rules and fairness, okay?  And we can't be happy without this.  We really can't.  Dignity said that to me, explained what our future is like otherwise.  It's depressing stuff.  And they said that we deserve better, both as a Magical Girl of Radianta, and as a person."

"...Will we -- will I really be happy, if I do this?  A million merits and the rest of the contract, that's…"

"I know, I know.  And I don't know if we'll be happy, but you know what I do know?  I know we'll have a chance to be."

---

Mini mimed out a groan as she watched her charge slay an entire football field of giant cockroaches.  

Things had been tough ever since that unfortunate lightning strike.

But it hadn't really been just unfortunate, or just a lightning strike, had it?  They knew that, now.

Mini still wasn't sure what to think.  She knew Dignity was a good person, but...

Before, Purple Rose was an acceptable, if somewhat average, magical warrior of peace and love.  Living her life, killing bugs, getting Merits for her service, exchanging Merits for things that were certainly very nice but didn’t upset the balance of the world.

Sure, she was a bit of a loner, doting on her family while mostly not caring about friends past that, but still!

Perfectly fine.

Purple Rose, and Mini, were as close to happy as they could get.

Now…

Mini mimed another sigh, wobbling back and forth in the air.

Now Purple Rose was…

…Well, she was much more efficient as a magical girl, but the idea of Purple Rose's loss making her a better fighter being something good made Mini wince.  

She was killing bugs left and right, easily slaughtering them with a flick of her spear.  She was using her powers in creative ways, taking advantage of the bugs' single-minded nature to lead them into traps.  She was killing as many bugs as some full teams did!

…But she wasn't happy.

She wouldn't even spend her merits because she 'needed' to save them for that stupid contract!

Not listening to Mini?  Mini could accept that.  She wanted to help.  She was made to want to help, to want to be a best friend for Purple Rose.  And sometimes that meant giving space and not being pushy. 

But Dignity's magic contract demanding she save up merits?

Killing bugs was fixing the world itself, and Dignity thought that work had to be rewarded.  So effort spent doing so earns ‘merits’.  And these merits impact the weight of a person, of their presence in the world.

Things go their way more often.  What they want is more likely to happen.

The world itself will bend itself into shapes and coincidences that pave the way for the goals of somebody with enough merits.

That’s why the Merit Exchange was created.  So magical girls could spend their merits.  Getting things of value, yes, but nothing that would bend the world to their whim.

Effort stabilizing reality must be rewarded.  It was one of The Rules.

And it's why magic contracts are always separate from merits!  Magic contracts are special, they're exceptions that are negotiated between Dignity and Magical Girls, something beyond and to the side of merits!  That was the whole point of merits!  Something solid with numbers and a roleplaying-game-alike shop screen!  You could just buy something nice for yourself, and it was real, and you could trust it, and even if you weren't happy you could be happier!

…Mini sagged.

It’s been nearly two years since Purple Rose stopped spending her merits.  

She's ahead of schedule, way ahead of schedule, she's miserable, and Mini doesn't think there's anything she can say to convince Purple Rose to take care of herself.

Mini groaned as she tilted back, floating as she looked up into the sky.

Why did this have to be so hard?!

...That's it!  She's had enough!  Desperate times call for desperate measures!

Time to nag Dignity until they fix it!

---

"...That's it?"  Purple Rose stared, her face screwing up.  "Dignity split you off to...  Tell me to take a break?"

"Breaks, plural, actually. Because you're miserable."  Mirror Rose glowered.  "I was miserable too until Dignity made me take a vacation!"

"...You took a vacation?"

"Alternate timeline vacation, yes."  She gives a firm nod, and flashes an impure smirk.  "With me having all the fun that you want to have but don't."

Purple Rose gave a confused look, blinked in realization, and then found herself blushing and floundering.  "I need a million merits!  I don't have the time or merits for that!"

"Actually, you do.  Because Dignity is going to start rewarding you with a percentage of extra merits that are only good for spending on yourself, not the contract."  Mirror Rose preened.  "Including retroactively applying it to all the rewards since the contract started."

Purple Rose stopped.  "...How, um, how big of a percentage?"

"Check your merit balance when you get back~"  Mirror Rose grinned.  "In the meantime, I have a few suggestions for merit spends."

---

Purple Rose sat on an apartment roof, feet dangling off the edge, as she stared at the magic screen she'd summoned to display her merit balance.

Oh.  That's a big number.

Purple Rose struggled a while longer to wrap her head around what she could buy with her balance, but she found herself getting bored of staring at it far faster than she was getting any understanding of it.  So she opened up the Merit Exchange and started flipping through the shop screens.  

...She couldn't help herself.  

She scrolled through the tabs until she found the one labeled 'Sex' that her doppelganger had told her about, and opened it.

... ... ...Oh.

Mini just groaned and teleported away with a cartoony popping noise, unwilling to watch something ‘so impure’.  

Purple Rose laughed.  Like she doesn’t spectate from hiding, the little deviant.  Purple Rose asked for her familiar to be based on her, so she knows what kind of person Mini is deep down.  

Because she knows what kind of person she is, and she's the kind of person that, right now, makes a purchase of [ One-Night Stand: Lifelong Memory ], set to immediate effect.

The shop screen gave a computerized ding and then a pop-up with directions.  She looked around, peering down at the street and sees -- 

Oh.  Oh, that guy was hot.

Purple Rose thought about her doppelganger's lurid grin. 

Then she licked her lips and, enthusiastic for something for what felt like the first time in years, jumped off the roof for a little ‘fan engagement’.

---

"What do you mean, I can't spend them yet?  The boss wanted a million merit, and I have that!"

"You can't spend it yet."  Mirror Rose said, grimacing.  "The date is important, okay?  That precise date in the contract.  No, I can't tell you why."

"That's four months away!  What am I supposed to do until then?!"

"Whatever you want."  Mirror Rose gave a serious look.  "I suggest tying up loose ends and that you keep your bug-killing skills sharp.  All the merits you have beyond that million, they're all use them or lose them."

Purple Rose blinked and buzzed. "...Where am I going?"

"Where our sibling is.  No, I can't tell you more.  I'm sorry."

---

…Over three years now.

Purple Rose stared at the dead computer screen with a sigh.  She’s sitting in her brother’s chair, the one he stole from the living room when he was sick once because of how comfy it is -- and never bothered to give it back.

She used to find that annoying, but now she just finds it amusing.

In a kind of sad way.

…Over three years, and she still has no idea where he is.

This is the date.

It's been rainy.  She smashed a minor outbreak this morning.  She felt too lazy to change back after getting home.  She spent the afternoon rereading a manga she liked as a kid.

...Nothing is happening.  Mini said that Dignity isn't saying anything.

She sighed and leaned back in her chair.

Mini is just milling around anxiously as she sits at the desk, letting her process.  She’s done this once a week for -- far too long, now.

Purple Rose closed her eyes for a moment.

She heard the sound of a computer screen turning on.

Her eyes snapped open.

Purple Rose saw a young woman on the other side of the screen.  A slutty woman, with demon horns on her head, fair skin, blond hair, bright blue eyes, and a truly massive chest.

The woman seemed shocked as she stared out of the screen, as if she’s looking straight at Jessica’s face.  

Her mouth moved, but Purple Rose didn't hear a thing.  The woman pressed her hand against the other side of the screen.  More soundless talking.  The hand balls into a fist and starts to silently pound.

Purple Rose stared at the screen.  She glanced down at the dead computer's cable laying unplugged on the floor, and then back up to the screen. 

Then Purple Rose stood up.  "Mini."  She hissed.

"I don't know!"  Mini squealed, landing on Purple Rose's shoulder, covering her mouth in shock and fright.  "This isn't Dignity's magic!"

There's a familiar ding, and the Merit Exchange shop screen spontaneously appeared to one side, out of view of the silently yelling woman.

Special sale, it said!

It listed one item, costing one million merits.

Purple Rose shivered as she read the item name.

[ I'VE DONE ALL I CAN.  PRETEND THIS WAS ENTIRELY THE OTHER SIDE'S MAGIC.  TELL NO-ONE I HELPED YOU UNTIL THE PLAN IS DONE.  GOOD LUCK. ]

Purple Rose swallowed, possessively clasped her other hand around Mini, and hit the buy button.