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Rin perched on the edge of the building and watched headlights zip around the city. Her orange skirt fluttered around her legs, and the wind almost felt cold on her exposed midriff. She absentmindedly adjusted her headset microphone, even though it was always perfectly in place. Rin wasn’t supposed to transform unless there was a problem, but she didn’t think any of them really followed that rule. Some times a magical girl just needs to be a magical girl. And it was definitely one of those times. She slowly stood up and let her feet balance on the ledge. Her large hammer clunked on the cement as she swung it off her shoulders. It weighed practically nothing to her. It felt light, actually, she felt light every time she became a magical girl. Everything she worried about melted away as her sparkly orange outfit and weapon burst into existence. With her armor in place she could leave the rest behind. She could forget her twin noticing every new scar she got, she could forget her friends hurt looks when she bailed on them again and again, she could forget Miku’s shining smile every time their eyes met— “Argh!!” Rin groaned, quickly rubbing at her face as if that could make the heat of her blush go away. Now she felt raw and scraped… and still hot. Okay so maybe right now she was more worried about one thing in particular. One person in particular. Miku, with her beautiful eyes that looked like a sea and her voice that always sounded like she was singing, and her hair! It was so long, she just wanted to run her hands through it just once— “Ughh!! Why is this happening to me!” Rin whined as she let herself topple over onto her butt. She looked up at the sky, but she was too close to the city, there weren’t any stars. Rin sigh and clutched the familiar handle of her hammer. Why did she have to fall in love with Miku? Out of the three of them, Miku had always been the leader. She was the one who found them, knew that they could be magical girls. Even when Rin didn’t believe them, Miku kept coming back, convincing Rin to believe her. Eventually, Rin didn’t care if Miku was crazy, she just wanted to know more about her. But then Miku had changed her life. Miku had put the earrings in Rin’s ear. Even that first touch, Rin’s heart skipped a beat. Rin bolted up and leapt from the building, lightly stepping onto the next. She kept running and leaping, as if that could leave behind anything. The biting air whipping past seemed to cool her down. She needed to think about something else, like how she wished her normal thigh high stockings stayed magically in place like these ones. Yeah, if she just concentrated on how magically amazing her outfit was instead of how cute Miku was, then she would be good. Just don’t think about the way she focused entirely on Rin when she started talking or the way Miku saved things on her phone to show Rin, or how it always seemed like their shoulders touched or their hands brushed each other— “Hey, Rin!” Rin yelped, tripping and falling face first onto the roof of the next building. Her hammer cracking the cement. She quickly propped herself up and covered her throbbing nose. “Owowowow!! That hurt!” she said, as she checked to see if there was any blood. A red smear was on her fingers. “That’s what you get for not paying attention!” Rin rounded on the third member of her magical girl trio, still clutching her bleeding nose. Gumi stood off to her side, her green skirt and ruffled crop top glittering in the light, showing off her strong figure. Her two crossbows were attached to straps on her thighs. She pushed up her goggles into her light green hair and saluted Rin. “Geez, you didn’t need to sneak up on me,” Rin said as she stood up. Her nose finally stopped bleeding; she cringed slightly as she wiped the blood off on the bottom of her skirt. At least it would be clean when she transformed again. “I’m sure you were just daydreaming about our peerless leader again,” Gumi said with a smirk as Rin felt her face burn. “H-hey! Where do you get off saying that?” Rin yelled as she aimed a kick at Gumi, which she promptly dodged. “My, oh my, our youngest princess is getting out of sorts,” Gumi taunted as she easily spun away from Rin’s punch. Gumi just laughed and Rin stopped bothering trying to teach Gumi a lesson. “You… you didn’t say anything to Miku… did you?” Rin asked quietly, reaching down to pick up her hammer. Gumi watched her for a second before shaking her head. “Of course not. You’re my friend, Rin. I wouldn’t sell you out like that,” she said as she slung an arm over the shorter girl’s shoulders. “Sorry…” Rin said even quieter than before. Gumi sighed. “Rin, Rin, Rin… you really should just tell her. Maybe today will be your lucky-lucky day!” Gumi said while thrusting her fist into the air. Rin squeaked and pushed away from Gumi. “Th-th-there’s no way!” Rin stuttered, and Gumi burst out laughing. “What’s with that tomato red face!” Gumi managed to say between her laughter, clutching her stomach. Rin stomped her foot in frustration. “Well what are you doing here in the first place? Is there trouble somewhere?” Rin said, desperately hoping so, anything to get off the current topic. “Oh! Oh yeah Miku called me and told me she sensed a Dissonance!” Gumi stopped laughing and suddenly pulled down her goggles and looked through them across the skyline. “Shoot, we need to go Miku is probably already there!” Rin gulped and followed Gumi’s gaze. The Dissonances… They couldn’t be magical girls without an adversary, and the Dissonances seemed to be an enemy that was just getting stronger and stronger. What poor kid had the darkness gotten a hold of this time? If it was a stronger than the last one… The battles had been getting so tough lately… “Okay got it,” Gumi said, the sensors in her goggles locating Miku’s location. “I’m ready, let’s go!” Rin said as she shifted the hammer in her hands. Gumi nodded and they both jumped off. Rin raced a step behind Gumi, following her out of the city and into a suburb. Rin tried to look far ahead to where the Dissonance was like Gumi could, but it was useless. How close were they? “There!” Rin jerked toward the sound of her voice and looked below them. They were sailing over a playground, the Dissonance drew her eyes and she immediately went cold. It was huge, way bigger than before. If it hadn’t been kneeling down they would have seen it above the buildings. The human-like shape rose up, a mess of tangled black twitching scribbles, like it had been colored in by a child. It wailed and Rin cringed at it’s sharp voice. She landed on the high chain link fence surrounding the playground and spun around. Her eyes zipped from side to side trying to find Miku. She had to be here already. She wasn’t hurt, was she? Where was she?! “Tempo 1!” Rin turned to that familiar voice. Miku raced toward the Dissonance, her long teal pigtails flying behind her as her two swords sliced into it. Her blue frilly skirt flashed in the streetlight, as she jumped away Gumi’s arrows rained down. Rin raised her hammer over her head and smiled fiercely as she leapt in. “Forte!” Rin yelled as she brought her hammer down on the Dissonances scribbly head. The sound wave from her attack sent it crashing down over the slides. “Nice shot!” Gumi yelled from across the playground. “Good of you to join me,” Miku joked as she came up beside Rin, who quickly tried to come up with a normal smile and not make a fool of herself like usual. Miku just giggled and wrapped her arms around Rin to give her a quick squeeze. Rin exhaled in surprise and tried not to squeal in happiness as Miku pulled away, getting her swords ready again. What’s the point… of even… bothering… The Dissonance wailed like a chord with all the wrong notes and Rin cringed, clapping her hands over her ears as she was knocked down to her knees by it’s voice. She looked over to see Miku trying to stand under it’s heavy voice. Rin shook her head and tried to concentrate. She had to stop goggling at Miku and focus on figuring out the song the Dissonance needed to hear to resolve. Singing was the only way to get rid of the darkness that turned despairing kids into Dissonances. As much as it’s voice hurt, they had to listen to it. They left… they forgot… about me… always me… Rin tried to stand up with Miku but the Dissonance had turned its attention to them and the pressure felt like the sky was pressing down on them. “Impromptu!” shouted Gumi as she appeared above the Dissonance, spending down quick bolts onto it’s back. It spun towards her and Rin and Miku staggered forward, finally released from the Dissonance’s voice. “All right she gave us an opening, time to use it!” Miku said, winking at Rin. Rin nodded eagerly, making her blonde hair bounce. They’d been working on new attacks for weeks, it was finally time to see how it stood up against a Dissonance this size. Rin ran forward, slamming her hammer into the Dissonance’s leg. It stumbled backward as Rin hopped away from it. She raised her hammer for another swing and paused, letting the magic build up, but the Dissonance seemed ready for this. It’s large hand rushed towards her. Rin gritted her teeth as she waited for the hit to land, unable to move until the hammer was fully charged. “Tempo 2!” Rin’s vision flashed blue as Miku, even faster than before, rushed forward and stabbed both of her swords into the middle of the Dissonance’s hand, stopping it in midair. Miku shouted in a last burst of energy, forcing the hand away. “Miku…!” Rin gasped, the relief leaving her body made room for the sudden flow of energy from her hammer. “Interval!” Rin yelled as she leapt up and slammed her hammer straight down on the Dissonance’s head. It crashed to the ground, sprawling over top of the swing set. Her feet lightly landed back on the ground and she stared at the Dissonance in disbelief. Had she knocked it out? They’d never been able to do something like that before. “Rin! That was incredible!” Miku cheered and hopped up and down on top of the jungle gym. “Geez, Rin, who knew you had it in you!” Gumi said as she started walking across the playground, crossbow over her shoulder. “Well, we all know I have the most muscle in the team,” Rin said as she flexed both her arms. Miku giggled and started laughing, one hand to her mouth. Rin felt her face light up like a christmas tree. Slightly embarrassed she smiled and ran a hand through her hair. “All right, team! Let’s see what we should do abou—“ Miku stopped mid sentence, her eyes widening in panic, “Rin, look out—!” Rin only just started turning when the Dissonance’s hand slammed into her. She would’ve screamed if all the air hadn’t been forced out of her lungs as she flew through the air and crashed into the play set. Air dragged into her lungs just as her head slammed into something metal. When Rin opened her eyes, she knew she must’ve blacked out. She tried to wipe away the sticky liquid on her face. Dammit, it was blood. “Rin! Rin are you all right?!” Rin looked up to see Miku’s anxious face looking down at her. One of her pigtails was pulled out and the left side of her face was bruised. Rin tried to move to see her closer, but a rush of dizziness and pain made her cry out and fall back into Miku’s arms. “M-Miku? What… what happened?” Rin managed to say, already starting to feel the throbbing in her head go down. Thank god the magic took care of the worst of the injuries. “You didn’t get up and… I ran over to you and saw the blood… god, Rin you scared me so bad…” Miku said, stumbling over what to say. Her eyes closed and her head dropped. Rin wasn’t sure if it was the blood loss or what, but she reached up and touched Miku’s bruised cheek. Miku flinched and her eyes opened in surprise. “Sorry… I should’ve been more careful. I’m all right now,” Rin said softly as she sat up. Miku gently helped her up to her feet. Rin wobbled for a second but then stood up straight. “Okay, I’m counting on you then!” Miku said, her voice still shaky, but she still smiled. Even with her face starting to swell, she’d never looked more beautiful. Always the leader, trying to stay strong, trying to do her best for the team. Rin knew… she would follow her anywhere. Speaking of anywhere… where exactly were they? The playground was nowhere in sight and instead they were in an alleyway, the trash smell already filling her nose. “Wait… where’s the Dissonance? Where are we?” Rin asked, looking around, while Miku grimaced. “Ooh yeah, I kind of rushed off with you to make sure you were okay. Gumi’s trying to distract it until one or both of us came back to help,” Miku said, thinly laughing as she picked up her discarded swords and handed Rin her hammer. Rin took it, gripping it tightly she faced Miku with a smile of her own. “All right, I’m ready!” Rin said, thrusting her hammer above her head to show Miku she could fight. Miku just shook her head, finally losing that worried look in her eyes and laughed. “All right, Muscle Rin, let’s go help Gumi!” And with that they both ran out of the alleyway. Rin heard the wail before she saw it; green arrows flew through the sky as the black jumbled mass lifted up above the houses. “Tempo 3!” Miku flashed ahead, zooming around the corner before Rin could reach it. She heard the Dissonance moan from the strike as she skidded around the corner. “Guys!” Gumi cried out in relief, from atop of the playground fence. Her glittery skirt torn and blood dripped from her nose. “Glissando!” Miku yelled as she spun and sliced at the Dissonance with both of her swords. It tumbled backwards, arms waving as it screeched. We were going to sing together… All I wanted to do was sing… Rin clenched her teeth and forced herself to move through the heavy voice. “Rondo!” she said, circling the Dissonance and striking it quickly. They were so close to figuring out the song. If they could get it to speak a bit more… “Resonance!” Gumi shouted just as Rin jumped away. She watched as Gumi aimed her two crossbows at the Dissonance and green phantom crossbows appeared all around her. Gumi struck with the physical ones and they all fired at once. The green arrows burying themselves into the dark body, bringing it to it’s knees. What can I do… without them… if I can’t sing… if I can’t do the one thing that makes me happy… The Dissonance sobbed, knocking Rin back, but suddenly everything clicked. She could hear the notes that would fill the Dissonance’s chord, the song and the words seemed to be humming from her hammer. “Miku! Gumi! I’ve got it!” she said, almost hopping in excitement. “All riiiiiight!” Gumi yelled, fist pumping the air as she jumped off the fence and hurried towards them. “Go for it, Rin!” Miku said, holding both her swords as she reached out a hand to Rin. Gumi holstered her crossbows and took Rin’s other hand after she slung her hammer onto it’s strap on her back. “Harmony!” they all shouted together, a glowing light surrounded them and the Dissonance tried to cover it’s face from the brightness. Rin took a deep breath, and then started to sing: “Find a reason to sing.” “I want to see you,” Miku joined. “You, who have taught me to sing,” all three of them sang together. The Dissonance seemed to stumble to a stop, music filling up the area. It raised it’s hands up to where it’s ears would have been and screeched, trying to break through the melody. “Somebody picks up the melody that somebody drops and again, somebody carries it away,” Gumi sang strongly into her headset, as the Dissonance started to shrink, it’s black scribbles pulling in on itself. “Even without knowing each other’s names or faces, a miracle comes to us all and brings happiness to somebody,” Miku added to the song. She glanced over at Rin and squeezed her hand. “Beyond the screen, I’ve always gazed on in jealousy,” Rin started, and in unison the three stepped toward the Dissonance and sang together. “Until now! Find a reason to sing, if I were to sing with you, I could forget time and lose myself in joy.” The Dissonance’s hands slowly fell away with each word. It shrunk even further, now only as tall as the swing set. It took a step towards the girls. “Find a reason to sing, the one and only thing, the gift of talent from god that I was given,” they sang, their harmonies finally overwhelming the Dissonance. The black mass condensed into human size before bursting away, revealing a boy their age, arms spread and completely glowing with light. Miku and Gumi gently took his hands in theirs, the light around them keeping the darkness away as it tried desperately to break through and take over the boy again. Finally the four of them sang the last verse together. “Connecting, connecting with your song,
“Connecting, connecting with your dream,
“Connecting, connecting with your life,
“Connecting with you.”
And with that last note the light exploded out, sending the darkness that was the Dissonance, skittering away into the night. The boy collapsed as Miku quickly caught him and lowered him to the ground. He was back to his normal self, fast asleep but there was a soft smile on his lips. “We did it,” Gumi gasped, propping herself up with her hands on her knees. “They just keep getting bigger…” Rin said quietly, the unspoken words hanging in the air. The silence stretched between them, but Miku broke it first. She put her arms around both Rin’s and Gumi’s shoulders, drawing them together. “We’ll keep fighting! And we’ll keep getting stronger! And we’ll keep saving kids who get turned into Dissonances. When it’s us three together, there’s no stopping us!” Miku said determinedly, but Rin could still feel the slight trembling in her arms. “Of course, we’ll always save the day!” Gumi said, invigorated again. The boy at their feet stirred and Gumi whispered a small “oops.” “Let’s go, he’s waking up,” Rin said as they all quickly turned and ran out of the playground. Just as they rounded the corner, Rin felt her transformation dissolve. She looked down at her school uniform and back up to see the others were back to being normal girls as well. “Looks like we’ll be walking back,” Gumi sighed and Miku giggled. Rin tried to start walking but she stumbled straight into Miku’s waiting arms. “Sorry… sorry,” Rin mumbled, trying to adjust to not having the energy pulse through her limbs anymore. It had healed the worse of her injuries, but it looked like she had started bleeding again. “Here, Rin, put this over it,” Miku said as she handed Rin her handkerchief. Rin carefully took it and pressed it to her forehead. “Maybe I should call for a car,” Gumi said, her cellphone already flipped open. “It’s all right, Rin. We’ll get you home soon. And then you better rest,” Miku said, her hands firmly around Rin’s waist, holding her up. Rin looked down, trying to hide the blush heating up her face. If she hadn’t been so distracted in the first place… she wouldn’t have worried Miku, and Miku wouldn’t have gotten hurt protecting her. “No, it’s not all right!” Rin said suddenly, her head snapping up as she looked directly in Miku’s widening eyes. “It’s my fault, I was distracted and let this happen because… because,” Rin faltered, still stumbling over the words. She shook her head. She was a magical girl, dammit! If she could fight monsters the size of a building she could tell Miku. “Because I love you and I had no idea how to tell you!” Rin burst out in a rush, closing her eyes. There was a silence and Rin forced herself to look at Miku who was… even brighter red than Rin was. Rin had never seen Miku so flustered, it was seriously the cutest thing she’d ever seen. “Rin…” Miku started and stopped. Rin tried to ignore her sinking heart. “It’s…It’s okay if you don’t, I-I just needed to tell you before—before,” Rin said, trying to say anything that made sense, when suddenly Miku threw her arms around Rin’s neck and kissed her. Rin froze for a second, her hand dropping away from her head. Miku! Miku was kissing her! What she’d imagined a thousand times was nothing compared to the warmth that spread throughout her, exploding and snapping like a firework. Rin wrapped her arms around Miku and kissed her back, forgetting about everything, the scars, the questions, the darkness that waited under every shadow, and let herself be truly and fully happy. Gumi let out a whistle that jolted Miku and Rin apart. They both looked over at Gumi sheepishly. “Sorry to break apart the confession but I am still present and the car will be coming soon,” Gumi said, but she was all smiles as she looked at the two of them, even winking at Rin. “Whoops,” Miku said as she laughed. Rin couldn’t take her eyes off her, even covered in dirt and Rin’s blood in her hair, she seemed to glow even brighter than the boy they had just saved. Miku turned back towards Rin and grabbed her hand that still held the bloody handkerchief. She moved Rin’s hand back up to her forehead and leaned into Rin’s ear. “I love you, too.” Rin felt a thrill go through her and almost wondered if any of this was happening. Miku took Rin’s free hand and held it. Rin decided it probably wasn’t a dream. “Careful or your face will get stuck like that,” Gumi said, playfully mussing Rin’s hair before putting her arm on her shoulders, which only made Rin feel like smiling more. They slowly started walking down the sidewalk until the car showed up, Gumi already telling Rin a story about school with Miku adding details. Rin squeezed Miku’s hand, almost to check if it was really there. When Miku squeezed back, Rin’s heart jumped. This definitely wasn’t a dream. And any small regrets she had about becoming a magical girl melted away. Rin wouldn’t trade meeting Miku and Gumi for anything. She pressed the handkerchief against her head and for once, didn’t worry about what she would tell her family when she got home. With Miku’s hand in hers and Gumi’s arm around her shoulders, she knew they’d be ready for whatever tomorrow brought.