Chapter 16: Everyone’s human

“End.” An impartial voice calls over the arena. Panting, nine girls with identical symmetric features except for their rainbow colored hair and eyes stopped sending burst of power towards numerous smoking targets that shimmered and faded from view. They straggle back to the middle of the arena, displaying clear signs of exertion.

“We get all of them?” A ten year old Flame asks, her crimson hair sticking to her head while shimmering with sweat.

“What do you think?” Snaps a similarly aged Fate, her pale complexion even more apparent than normal as she struggles to stand upright.

A deep green haired girl steps between them, putting her hand against each of their chests. “It’s infinite, Flame. Nobody ever gets all of them.” She says, shaking her head.

“Hope’s right.” Pants Arcane, her cyan hair in the best shape of all the girls but still showing signs of incredible effort. “Everyone alright?”

“Yes” comes the chorus from the other eight, some sitting down while others lean against the rubble that still filled the arena where the structure had broken and collapsed. Flame humphs and glares at Fate before falling down herself, laying spread eagled on the hard floor with her chest heaving up and down. Hope, the green haired girl, takes one last look at Fate and sits next to her, crossing her legs with obvious difficulty. For her own part, Fate remains standing, either too proud or too stubborn to collapse.

Dawn is there as well, leaning against a girl with pitch black hair contrasting her pale skin. They make a nice pair of dark and light, rather fitting considering the other girl’s name is Dusk. Breeze is breathing rapidly, her shoulders shaking as she sits on a broken piece of masonry. Near her are the last two, a girl with almost normal brown hair and another with deep blue hair. One of those speaks next.

“How many hits did we take?” The brown haired one asks, looking around.

“None for me.” Dawn replies, tilting her head backwards to look at the black haired girl. She shakes her head. “Nor for Dusk.”

“Only fatal or any, Stone?” Hope asks, counting on her fingers. “Two for the first, and I’m not sure for the second.”

“If we’re counting glancing, three for me.” Whispers Dusk in a barely audible voice. “And seven for Dawn she didn’t notice.”

“Huh?” Dawn exclaims loudly, flipping her head back and hitting Dusk’s in the process. Both girls lean forward to nurse the point of impact.

“My deflection worked mostly, so just one for me. Nonfatal.” Flame adds, raising her hand. “Rain, Fate, you two take any?”

“Why aren’t you asking Breeze and Arcane?” Fate growls sullenly.

“Five for me.” the blue haired girl says in a monotone in answer to the name Rain. “Breeze and Arcane are probably at zero, Fate.”

“Yep!” Breeze calls with a thumbs up from where she has fallen backwards on her rock. “Dodged everything!”

“Stone, I’ll assume you blocked everything?” Arcane says, ignoring Fate and getting a nod from the brown haired girl. “So it’s none for Stone, Breeze, and I, plus 1 for Flame. Then we have three for Dusk?” The black haired girl nods. “Seven for Dawn, and five for Rain. Plus however many Hope and Fate took.”

“Why are you assuming I took a lot?” Fate grumbles.

“I never assumed that, but I’ll take that as you did.” Arcane snaps back, taking a seat next to Hope on a piece of rubble she moved into position. “Only Hope’s two on the fatals?”

“Considering no one else is dead…” Fate starts.

“Fate, shut up.” Arcane interrupts, glaring at her until she closes her mouth and looks away sullenly. “Fatals?”

“None.” Rain says, pointing around at the rest. “There weren’t any res’s.”

“I still don’t think it should be counted if you can recover.” Hope grumbles. “I’m at at least twenty, Arcane. Sorry.” She adds, holding up her hands with all ten fingers spread.

Several of the others groan, sitting up with difficulty.

“By the cross, Hope, do you not understand the basic premise of dodging?” Flame says in an annoyed voice.

“What was the max we could take?” Rain asks, swiping the air aimlessly. “... Fifty, right?”

“Fatalities are worth five.” Stone adds. “Sixteen, plus at least thirty points for Hope… Dammit, we lost.”

“Yeah, no way Fate’s under four.” Flame replies, shaking her head.

“Go to hell!” Fate yells, crossing her arms and stalking away from Flame.

“Oh, then how many did you take, corpse?” Flame asks, pushing herself to her feet and walking after the pale haired girl.

“Flame!” Hope shouts, getting up herself to try and stop the imminent conflict. All three are suddenly frozen in place, a certain cyan haired girl remaining seated and shaking her head.

“Sit down.” Arcane says calmly, creating a circle of seats. “Fate got zero hits, Flame.”

“Wha…!” Fate mouths, staring at Arcane.

“Bull!” Flame shouts, whirling towards Arcane in a similar state. “The hell are you playing at, Arcane?”

“Fate’s been pretending to take more hits in this game while avoiding all of them. I updated the system to stop counting ghost hits after the second round.” Arcane explains calmly, waving towards the seats. “I do not like it when people purposely underperform, sister.”

“...” Fate falls silent, stalking over to the furthest seat from Arcane and slamming herself into it. Flame, looking between her pale and cyan haired sisters, shakes her head and takes a seat next to Arcane. The other six straggle in, sitting down in a circle while looking towards their de facto leader.

“I’m sorry, sisters.” Hope says unhappily, shaking her head. “I’m pretty sure I’m over twenty five, plus the two fatals.”

“Forty two points in total, Hope.” Arcane says, reading off something only she can see. “I know this isn’t easy but…”

“Why don’t we just drop her?” Fate mumbles from between Rain and Stone, both of whom immediately turn and pinch her. “Ouch!”

Arcane glares at Fate but moves on. “You need to stop taking hits just because they don’t hurt you, Hope. There are things which can kill us in a single hit.”

“I know, Arcane, but I can’t avoid all of them like you or Breeze.” Hope complains, holding out her hands. “My magic doesn’t work that way.”

“Then…””FATE!!!” Fate starts to say something, but she is cut off by a furious roar from Arcane. The two girls’ eyes meet for a few seconds before Fate looks away, crossing her arms. “Be silent. Am I understood?” Arcane orders, causing Fate to sullenly nod while looking at the floor.

“You asked for that.” Stone mutters, shaking her head while Rain nods once and pats Fate on the back. The rest do not look quite so kindly at their pale haired sister.

“Hope, you just need to, like, whoosh and, swoop, and like,...” Breeze says, trying to ignore the hostile atmosphere developing by gesturing wildly at Hope, who smiles.

“Thanks for the advice, sis.” Hope pats Breeze on the shoulder before shaking her head. “But I really can’t do what you do.”

“Physical enhancement, maybe?” Flame asks, looking to her left at Arcane. “You’re best at that.”

“I already am.” Hope shrugs. “And Arcane is not much better than I am at it.”

“Hope’s right, the level of this assault is way beyond what you can do with purely physical abilities.” Arcane confirms, placing her hand on Flame’s. “But it was an idea.”

“Hope should be able to create a shield, like I do.” Stone notes.

“I can, but I need organic material to make it. If I make it out of myself it counts as a hit, and I often go much higher.” Hope explains, making a wood shield grow out of her finger.

“This seems specifically tailed to make it difficult on Hope.” Rain notes in her monotone voice.

“It’s a simulation meant to prepare us for anti-magic lethal assaults.” Dusk whispers, causing the rest to fall silent and strain to hear. “There are weapons which can infect even us with deadly toxins in just a glancing hit.”

“Seriously? Why are we being prepped for something like that?” Dawn exclaims in her much louder voice, causing the rest to wince at the sudden change in volume. “You worry too much, Dusk!”

“We still have to complete it.” Flame shrugs.

“And it’s also fun!” Breeze yells happily. The rest stare at her until she shrinks back into her seat and looks around. “What?”

“You find the bright side in everything, don’t you?” Stone mutters.

“I thought that was my job?” Dawn retorts.

“No, you just blind everyone with your presence.” Dusk whispers while rolling her eyes.

Dawn turns and playfully punches her in the shoulder. “Hey!”

“Ahem!” Arcane coughs and claps her hands, bringing everyone’s attention back to her. “Shall we stop worrying about the meta purpose of the simulation and focus instead on how to get Hope through it?”

“Could we bring in some organic material?” Dawn proposes.

“Unlikely.” Rain replies shortly.

“But…” Dawn starts. Dusk puts her hand over her golden sister’s mouth and whispers, “Simulation is worst case. There won’t be any external resources.”

“Not entirely true.” Arcane corrects. “Air and solid matter are both being provided, along with a certain amount of water vapor. Breeze, Stone, and Rain are using those.”

“How hard is it to create organic matter out of those ingredients?” Flame asks.

“I could, but it would take way too long.” Hope explains. “Arcane and I tried it once.”

“In this simulation? When did you two do that?” Dawn asks, whirling to stare suspiciously at Arcane on her other side.

Arcane waves her hand to soothe her, shaking her head. “Not in this simulation. It was a separate incident where we found it takes about an hour, and that’s with both of us working together.”

“Temporal… Oh, right, you probably used that already.” Stone starts, then catches herself proposing something obvious.

“What about your mythic world?” Fate asks, quickly turning away and pretending to have said nothing at Arcane’s look.

“It’s been forbidden.” Arcane says as the rest turn to look at her, shaking her head unhappily.

“The bigger question right now is why you have a mythic world.” Flame notes suspiciously. “As well as how Fate knows about it.”

“I made it myself, and used it to beat her a few times.” Arcane explains, trying to quickly move away from that subject. “Is there another way we could lower hit count?”

“... Okay then.” Flame says, her eyes lingering on Arcane a bit longer than necessary. Once everyone else had turned away Arcane sends a dangerous glance at Fate promising retribution as soon as they were done with this. Fate looks back and smirks mischievously.

“Should we shift Hope to supporting the rest of us while we defend for her?” Dawn asks. “Can we do that?”

“Worth a shot.” Arcane notes, scrolling through the rules list and not seeing anything prohibiting that. “Actually, it’s probably what we were supposed to do. This is survival, not obliteration, after all.”

“Who likes playing according to the rules?” Flame says, her arms and legs catching fire as she smiles dangerously.

“It makes things easier.” Rain notes, ropes of waters starting to spin around her. “Which is probably why you hate it.”

“Rain, was that an attempt at an insult?” Flame grins. “Unfortunately, I can’t be burned.”

“Ouch.” Stone comments, waving a hand to crush all the stones and seats in the arena. “Are we ready?”

“We’re going again?!” Breeze yells, wind carrying her into the air instantly. Her lime green dress flaps around silently, the sound contained by swirling winds. “Yippee!!”

“Ready.” whispers Dusk as she fades into a shadow. Beside her, Dawn’s hair starts to shine with light as she nods with a broad smile.

“Stone, Rain, help guard Hope. Hope, enhance everyone else.” Arcane commands, cyan light exploding around her as space shifts wildly and creates a terrifying maze of spatial distortions around them. “It’s starting.”

“Got it.” “Understood.” Stone and Rain reply quickly, Hope reaching out to touch those around her to show her own assent. Fate meets Arcane’s eyes for a second and nods begrudgingly. Black winds surge and fill the spatial maze, draining energy from space and making the fluctuations even more devastating.

Within seconds the attack begins. A wave of pure energy slams into the outer edge of the maze and careens off in every direction. Countless more assail the barrier, the program running the attack having learned long since that holding back against these nine was a mistake. Arcane and Fate manipulate the maze, distorting the energy attacks and using them to ravage the tunnels leading into the arena from which countless footsteps could be heard. Spider and humanoid robots charge out, directly into energy bursts which vaporize them instantly.

The waves stop as soon as the soldiers came out, their purpose having been to pin down the girls so they wouldn’t enter the tunnels and attack the source of the robots, something they had done the first time before the computer shut down the simulation and ordered them back to the center.

Most of the soldiers, several thousand strong, are lost in the rapidly expanding spatial maze which fills the outer half of the arena. Their bullets wildly race around, seeming to teleport as they enter and exit cracks in space. Arcane focuses while Hope enhances her, redirecting the bullets to kill as many robots as possible with their own firepower. Occasionally she also tears space apart herself to slaughter large groups, but far too often such groups are simply not present.

“Ignition!” Flame calls, which makes Breeze form a massive tornado around the nine girls and lift them rapidly into the air. Below, the arena explodes as nuclear fire consumes the entirety, the overpressure surging outwards to crush the arena but mysteriously dissipating as it hits the walls. The girls quickly drop down and cover themselves with a shield of earth as hundreds of flying units descend from above and start shooting at them.

“Too predictable.” Stone mutters, maintaining the shield with half her mind and molding thousands of bullets with the rest.

Breeze has her eyes closed and is listening to the wind as the assault continues, mumbling to herself as if counting rapidly. Once she hits a certain point she shouts, “Clear!”

Stone drops the shield at the same second as the bullet rain ends, the robots starting to reload before being obliterated by a combined assault from Flame, Stone, Breeze, and Rain. Caught in an armageddon like storm they are quickly sent spiraling out of the air and towards the ground, broken and destroyed.

“Wave twenty defeated.” The computer voice announces. “Beginning endless assault mode.”

“Couldn’t we just start with that?” Dawn complains, manifesting a sword of light.

“Keep dreaming. Life isn’t that fair.” Rain replies, ropes of water moving faster and faster around her body.

“Isn’t the gradual build up more like fairness?” Hope says back, confused.

Rain looks at her crosswise, then dodges out of the way as a massive metal bolt passes through where she was just standing. Stone forms a shell of rock around herself and Hope, which quickly extends spines and starts shooting back at the massive metallic monstrosities approaching from every direction.

“Go!” Arcane shouts, removing the spatial maze (which would not affect these monsters) and manifesting a storm of pure force to smash a hole in their ranks.

“That’s wasteful.” Fate comments, her black wind easily causing dozens to keel over as if powerless. However, others pause and kneel by these fallen ones, after which they get back up and keep walking. Fate drops her hand and purses her lips. “Huh. That's new.”

“This is survival mode, Fate. If we could wipe them out so easily it wouldn’t be very hard, now would it.” Arcane remarks snidely, her force magic returning the reraised robots to their graves.

“Not very realistic.” Fate complains, accelerating entropy to cause a couple to blow up, taking a few of their comrades with them.

On the other side, Dawn charges in with her golden sword of light, shooting lasers from the sky to cut the robots into pieces. Behind her a shadow slips between the monsters and makes them mysteriously fall apart, their parts corroding before freezing and shattering into tiny shards. Several also start shooting wildly at nothing, hitting their fellows before being put down by other robots.

“Dawn and Dusk are doing alright.” Arcane notes to Breeze, who has descended to stand next to her and Fate.

“I thought this was a defensive exercise?” Fate comments snidely, slashing a wave of death through several robots and watching them break down and collapse.

“It’s more fun this way.” Breeze laughs, holding hands with Arcane and hurling a wave of wind and force into the robots coming from above, blasting them into the distance. Breeze leaps into the air and races upwards to pursue the robots coming from even further above, the sky darkened by their numbers.

“God, can’t you do anything right?” Arcane asks while the robots Fate attacked once again climb to their feet. A casual burst of force puts them back on the ground where a wave of stone spikes finishes them off. “Do something that works.”

Fate rolls her eyes and causes a few more to explode with entropy before vanishing abruptly, revealing the her standing there to be a manifested ghost. Arcane doesn’t bother to search for her real body, blocking the spike which went through Fate with a shield of reflective energy and throwing it back to destroy the original robot.

“Rain!” Arcane calls, noticing several robots resisting her force by becoming slightly liquid. The blue haired girl looks over and nods, abandoning the robots she was fighting while Arcane teleports over to fight them barehanded. Every blow delivers terrible force with the enhancement magic, Arcane herself dancing between the massive monstrosities to force them to choose between shooting their allies and close combat. Both choices turn out poorly for them, shot robots working as wonderful projectiles for Arcane to hurl off in random directions.

At her former position Rain has taken control of the liquid aspects of the robots and is manipulating a storm of slashing fluid carving through a swath of metallic attackers. Glancing over to ensure Rain’s safety, Arcane idly made a total shield around herself and let a robot knock her flying. Flipping her body over in the air she crosses the arena to land in the midst of an oncoming wave of robotic monsters. Maintaining her shield while also locking it in space, she kneels down and bows her head.

A high pitched whine fills the air around her, vibrations caused by the shattering and reconnecting of space at insane speeds resonating with the air itself to tear molecules apart. Unstable and volatile, the atoms recombine in a phenomenon similar to the outer corona of large stars. As that starts, Arcane minutely diminishes the electromagnetic repulsion of positive charges, causing the nuclei themselves to combine in a small area.

‘Dawn, Flame.’ Arcane calls to the ears of two of her sisters, who stop what they are doing and prepare to receive the immense energies soon to explode. Rain and Stone shatter several more near them before gathering together and shielding themselves under a metallic barrier, which Arcane immediately dimensionally isolates.

She is just in time, too, because the terrifying explosion shakes even her energy shield and instantly ignites all the matter around her. Nuclear fusion spreads in a chain reaction like that of a large scale supernova. The temperature skyrockets as particles shoot in every direction and most of the robots are consumed by the fusion reaction, their very atoms fissioned and fused to release the maximum possible energy. The light from the explosion alone is enough to melt all materials for thousands of kilometers, instantly annihilating all the robots currently in existence. Even the computer program has trouble adapting to the sudden onslaught, it's ‘infinite’ assault completely wiped out for the first time in its memory. It reacts by doubling the rate of attackers, generating robots by their billions to blacken the sky and ground.

Arcane smiles malevolently as she sees them pop into existence. Dawn feels the same way, joyously taking control of the light approaching magnitude -50 around the blast site and refining it into an even more deadly array of lasers by isolating each individual wavelength. The millimeter thick beams spin rapidly in a rainbow of color that shatters the prepared wave, each bending unnaturally to form a spiraling matrix of death that lasts for several seconds. Dawn claps her hands with joy while watching the terrifying light show massacre the enemies.

“I'm definitely sure we aren't supposed to do that.” Flame says, condensing the heat into several ominously glowing balls of superheated plasma while watching the sky and smiling broadly. “But it's awesome as hell!”

“Well played, Dawn!” Arcane praises Dawn, still maintaining her energy barrier against the still extreme heat and radiation of the area. The latter diminishes constantly as Dawn drains it to power her laser array while Flame accelerates her condensation of the latter. The other six remain under the shield, waiting out the firestorm.

“I'm almost out.” Dawn says soon, showing signs of strain at keeping up the kilometers wide maze of thousands of lasers. “Flame!” She shouts as the lasers disappear.

“My turn.” The Crimson girl says grimly, showing a tight smile while Dawn hurries to allow Arcane to envelop her in a shield. Dusk materializes next to her, shaking her black haired head reproachfully.

“Excessive.” She whispers in an almost inaudible voice, the trio watching as Flame sends the balls of heat out to meet the ever growing mass of robots the computer generated in response to the successive annihilation attacks.

Within the balls, Arcane weakens the positive charge repulsion again while Flame imbues immense heat into the up quarks alone. The atoms are weakened by the twin assault, so when Dusk adds her power to enhance quantum tunneling they rip themselves apart in a heartbeat. Even the nucleons shatter, the quarks flying off in every direction before immediately recombining into mesons and bosons through the machinations of the strong force.

Events such as this are impossible in anything short of particle accelerators, and never seen on large scale. Protesting the impossibility the computer tries desperately to simulate the result and comes up with the closest equivalent: the terrifyingly efficient vacuum to energy conversions of nanotechnological paradise reactors, which also utilized the strong force’s spontaneous creation and destruction of matter, albeit on a much smaller scale. Calculating from there the energy released, the computer applies the equivalent explosive force on the simulated universe.

The result is just short of what would actually occur if such actions were to occur in the true universe. Rapidly propagating explosions feed on the vacuum between atoms by generating and destroying quarks to release nigh infinite energy of both a positive and negative nature. Arcane expands her shield to cover Flame and then rapidly cuts off all dimensional links between them and the arena, sensing the energy about to be released. Stone, Rain, and Breeze are dragged in a heartbeat later as their own defenses are severed by Arcane, Hope and Fate staring at the other four in awestruck shock as they sense what is about to happen.

“What the fuck did you do, Arcane?” Fate demands, her eyes wide.

“We may have gone a teensy bit overboard.” Arcane replies, rotating their dimensional alignment and preventing any of the oncoming fluctuations from reaching them. She slows down time on the inside to have more time to prepare as well, which Hope helps by speeding up everyone’s mental processes.

“A teensy bit? That's an anti-Galaxy class weapon!” Fate screams.

“Nah, it should fizzle out at a few thousand light years max.” Flame protests, shaking her head.

Outside, space itself is bending faster than its being restored as the terrifying energy manifests itself, the equivalent gravity created alongside it bending space time to temporarily slow the blast while also consolidating and speeding the reaction. The computer frantically calculates and realizes that what is about to happen is the worst case scenario possible: lacking energy from the four dimensional space-time universe, the reaction is about to draw more from an additional six. Among those drawn from are two of the hyperspatial dimensions humanity uses to move faster than light and their favorite for folding space.

“... Or a few million.” Flame corrects, noting the change by sensing the dimensions folding in on themselves. “No biggy.”

“... Our bad.” Dusk whispers, watching fascinated as the bright explosion turns to a darkness darker than a black hole as the rate of gravity creation exceeds that of light. Within that blackness, all nine sense the reaction approaching criticality, at which it will spread through all ten dimensions it is drawing from and ignite all matter and energy within its range in a similar reaction. Leaving behind essentially nothing but perfectly flat, and empty, space.

A picosecond later it begins. Faster than even these girls can perceive the arena is wiped out of existence, the robots destroyed even as they are created at a rate exceeding that the computer can calculate. It merely settles for adding robots to the kill count without even materializing them, understanding that the universe created is not one that will be survivable for the next several minutes. The arena disappears, as does the ground and the sky as the computer is ordered finally to give up the simulation as a white room materializes around the girls.

“Simulation prematurely terminated. Use of incalculable super weapon determined to be above star-class in destructive ability. Requesting outside review.” The computer says as the nine girls look at each other and start laughing.

“We broke it.” Flame cheers, high fiving Dawn and Arcane.

“Broke it? That's an understatement.” Stone observes.

“Can we do it again?” Breeze asks, jumping up and down.

Arcane looks at Hope and shrugs. “I'm going to guess that's a no.” Arcane says slowly, then bursts out laughing.

“I'm glad you feel this so funny.” Fate says acidly, crossing her arms. “But I don't remember what the rules of a pass were if you break the god-damn test!”

“Chill out, Fate.” Dawn returns. “We had fun, and that's all that matters.”

“Also, I took zero hits.” Hope notes, raising her hands in victory signs. “So that ought to count as a perfect run.”

Fate glares at them and rolls her eyes. Arcane shakes her head and pats her on the shoulder. “Stop worrying about it. This worked; who cares precisely how.” Arcane says, patting the pale girl’s shoulder.

“Yeah, we made the computer simulate an anti-Galaxy technique!” Breeze exclaims. “Bet nobody’s done that before!”

“Most people aren't insane.” Fate observes, raising an eyebrow.

“Everyone else is having fun, Fate.” Stone says. “Why can't you?”

“Maybe it's because acting like a child and trying to break the simulation is not my idea of fun?” Fate asks rhetorically. “Or was that not one of the options.”

“Fate, just shut up.” Arcane says in exasperation. Flame, Dawn, Breeze, and Stone nod in agreement, while Dusk and Hope just look away. Fate stares around at all of them, her lips pressed thin.

Before she can say anything, though, Rain grabs her sleeve and pulls her around. “Let it go.” She says, shaking her head at the intractable Fate.

Fate shakes her sleeve free and walks a bit away from the group, folding her arms and leaning against the side of the white room, pouting. Arcane and the rest dismiss her from their thoughts and return to talking happily about what they just did.

“Thanks for the assist, Dusk. I'm sure it wouldn't have been half that strong if you didn't jump in.” Dawn forcibly changes the subject from Fate’s complaints, patting Dusk on the shoulder.

“It was scary.” Dusk whispers. “But also fun.” She smiles brilliantly while Dawn laughs uproariously.

“Heck yeah it was fun! You guys should have been there.” Flame says, looking at Stone, Rain, and Hope.

“Um, we were?” Stone reminds Flame, tilting her head.

“I enhanced you, so I helped too!” Hope adds angrily.

“I had no part of it.” Rain monotones, making it impossible to determine if she was complaining or declaring her innocence.

Dawn, confused by that uncertainty, looks at her blue haired sister and wonders aloud. “Are you happy or unhappy about that?”

“Rain’s impossible to read.” Flame says, shaking her head. “But I'm sure she's down with another go.”

“If we didn't pass.” Rain monotones back, causing more laughter.

Breeze claps her hands and jumps in a circle. “Again! Again! Again!”

“Maybe a bit less universe destroying this time?” Stone asks, looking around.

“Hell no! That was the best part.” Flame retorts. “Also, I wanna make sure it's… What do the technos say, repeatable?”

“We’ll see, Flame.” Arcane says with a smile. “They may forbid it as ‘against the spirit of the rules’... Well, I'm sure we can figure out another way to overload the simulation.”

Flame and Dawn turn to stare at her, before breaking out in even larger smiles than before. Breeze cheers happily while Dusk nods once before looking down. Stone and Rain exchange ‘what are we going to do with you’ glances (well, Stone does. Rain remains expressionless) while Hope smiles at everyone equally. Fate leans against the wall, ignoring all of them.

The nine sisters discuss for a while longer, waiting for the computer to contact an administrator and that admin to review the incident. Eventually, a white coated female teacher appears in front of them, holding a clipboard.

“Hello, teach.” Flame says, waving her hand.

“Good afternoon, Flame. Girls.” The woman says, nodding to the collected group. “This test is suspended. We’re going to quickly review your results; is that okay with all of you?”

“Did we pass this last one?” Stone interjects, raising her hand after asking.

“I believe we will get there, Stone.” The teacher soothes, looking around and seeing the rest shrug at her proposal to review the results. “Excellent. Now, in the first test you were disqualified in the tenth round for assaulting the generation facilities and, I quote, ‘designing an environment unconducive to the testing of your ability to defend an area,’ which was found to be against the spirit of the rules on establishing structure. Is this correct?”

“We'd like to protest…” Breeze starts before Dawn quickly claps her hand over the other girls mouth.

“Yes, that's correct.” Arcane says, also displeased with the disqualification but not particularly minding it.

The teacher nods and flips the first page on her clipboard over. “In your second round, you easily breezed through the first twenty waves but were caught off guard by the infinite assault, taking over a thousand hits while designing, and again I quote, ‘the most beautiful Crystal tower in which to rule over the planet’. Is this correct?”

“It was an awesome tower.” Stone mutters, before she is quickly shushed by Flame and Dusk.

“Um, about that…” Arcane replies, raising her hand and thinking about their understanding that this was some sort of defend the arena game and thus they should build a tower. She considers what sort of excuse she should give and then slowly lowers her hand. “Nevermind, it's correct.”

“I see.” The teacher says slowly, staring at Arcane as she shuffles uncomfortably. “For your third attempt, you cleared the twenty waves without issue but took sixty eight hits, eighteen over the fifty allowed. It was also noted that during this round you all operated separately and, according to this report, raced in different directions to compete over how many you could kill. May I ask why you came to the decision this was not a team event?”

“I won, by the way.” Flame declares, totally ignoring the mood. Of course, she is not alone, as Dawn and Arcane both gasp and turn on her.

“No, I won!” Dawn protests.

“The hell are you two talking about? Clearly I killed more than both of you combined!” Arcane yells at both of them.

“Arcane! You lier, I got the most!” Flame retorts, raising her flaming hand. “I nuked your area twice.”

“Well I flattened yours AND Dusks!” Arcane retaliates, crossing her arms. “So there.”

“Girls!” Shouts the teacher, staring at the brewing argument.

“Yes, sisters, let's not forget that we completely missed the point of the exercise and acted like little children during that escapade.” Fate patronizes, rolling her eyes at the rest.

“Just because you got last place…” Flame mutters with a sideways glance at Fate.

“Yes, yes, you're so immature you'd change the rules just to deny that you lost. Should I remind you that the real game was not getting hit, or are you going to pretend that didn't happen because you lost it?” Fate returns.

Flame makes as if to jump at Fate, but Arcane grabs her and glares at the other girl. “Enough, both of you.” She growls menacingly.

“Indeed.” The teacher declares, looking at all three of them. “Including you, Arcane. Now, I believe I have sufficient answers to the question of why you decided to go all solo warrior in the third round, which brings us to the fourth and final round.” Sighing, she flips her page again and takes a deep breath. “To be honest, this test is supposed to be much simpler. If you simply survive you are determined to have passed, but for you nine we raised the bar a bit. Still, most people take over twenty rounds before they manage to clear the waves, much less the hour long infinite assault at the end. Honestly, we should have passed you after the second round by this criteria. After the first time you had already memorized the twenty waves and destroyed them almost the instant they appeared, which led to the computer trying to go even faster to prevent their instant defeat. I'm sure you noticed these changes…”

The girls look at each other and shrug. “To be honest, we thought it was trying to learn how to beat us.” Hope notes, raising her hands in confusion. “And we figured it was preparation for anti-mage hypertech weapons. You know, the one scratch one kill kind.”

“...” The teacher stares at her in silence. “While we cannot deny that such weapons exist, Hope, they do not in such numbers nor are they cheap enough to be wasted in such an attack. That is still an impressive justification, and an assault you all should be prepared for if possible.” The girls nod in unison, already having decided these things for themselves. “Now, about this last round, the infinite assault is meant to ramp up the difficulty with the number of enemies defeated. It is also meant to send as many as necessary to kill the trial takers by numbers alone, so it's theoretically far more than any test taker could wipe out. Even after your third round massacre the computer believed this was its goal and that it understood your level. However…”

Flipping through her papers, the teacher continuously shakes her head while reading off the list. “A spatial distortions maze enhanced by death energy, nuking the arena during the seventh wave which destroyed everything up through the twentieth, creating a liquid steel hurricane, induced neutron fusion, a luminosity magnitude -50 laser maze, and finally igniting a ten dimensional paradise annihilation reaction. I can't think of anything but you deliberately trying to crash the simulation.”

“...” Silence greets the completion of her words, the nine girls all looking around evasively while Breeze even started whistling.

“... Haa.” The teacher sighs and nods. “Be that as it may, it is currently being considered a perfect pass pending further review. However, I am instructed to tell you to never, under any circumstances, attempt this multi-dimensional paradise reaction in anything other than completely controlled simulations, nor to speak of it under any circumstances. There are enough problems in intergalactic politics without introducing the potential of a super galactic destructive weapon.”

““““““““““Understood!””””””””” The girls chorus in unison, bowing quickly and smiling happily.

Shaking her head the teacher waves as she disappears, dismissing the students back into a crowded townscape where numerous people wander about in a virtual world.

The sudden appearance of nine brightly colored girls (well, six given that Stone, Dusk, and Fate are not all that outlandish in pigment) does not evoke any comment here. Old fashioned wood structures stand one or two stories around them, and thousands of people wearing completely impractical metallic and leather outfits in the most extraordinary of colors push past each other in the dirt streets. This is a virtual world based on the medieval fantasy genre, one of the most popular types of virtuality people could use for work or leisure. Its carefully cultivated atmosphere is somewhat ruined, therefore, by people sitting at wood tables typing on invisible screens next to others drawing or examining other things only visible to the worker. Then again, this town of single story buildings, even though there are likely a few thousand of them, cannot possibly possess sufficient accommodations for even the few currently visible. Realism had never been a characteristic of massive multiplayer worlds.

Arcane leads her sisters through the crowd, pushing a path with force magic. It occasions some comment to use magic within a town but as she is not using the preprogrammed skills that allow those without their own magic to use some image of it she’s not stopped by the system. The nine head for a narrow side street and walk down it, away from the crowded spawning point. They pass several beggar-like player and nonplayer characters, easily dodging their outstretched hands before reaching another wide and crowded street. However, this one has fewer weapon bearing adventurers and many more silent workers.

A particularly tall building stands in the path the sisters take, four or five stories with a sharp peaked roof. The jump, too great for even the highest stats players can utilize within the limitations of the town’s system, is quickly surmounted by one after another. Arcane sits first atop the peaked roof, joined by Flame and Dawn to her sides and then Breeze and Dusk to theirs. Fate sits right below Arcane, Stone and Rain to her left below Flame and Breeze while Hope takes her right and leans against Dawn’s knees.

“Bleh.” Hope spits in disgust as she rubs Dawn’s legs. “Why are there always so many people?”

“This is the only place they can use magic.” Dawn reminds her.

Dusk shakes her head in dissent and whispers in her quiet voice, “Among many.”

“I meant the virtual world in general.” Dawn protests, aggrieved.

“Whatever.” Hope sighs. “I would rather just use the classroom if we have to wait.”

“We’re done for the day.” Arcane reminds her.

“What, seriously?” Flame says from her left, startled. “It’s only about noon.”

“Eleven, actually.” Fate corrects. “And I’m reasonably sure we broke the teaching program, so they have to fix that before anything.”

“Heh.” Flame snorts.

Rain leans back against Flame’s legs like Hope is, closing her deep blue eyes. “Good. I need to study.”

“We just got out of school and you want to study?” Flame exclaims, aghast.

“I need to go over the dynamics of superfluids again.” Rain declares emotionlessly. Flame continues to stare down at her and shakes her head, but doesn’t say anything.

“Does this mean we’re free to go play?” Breeze asks cheerily from her seat on the far left, jumping up and cheering. “I’m off then!”

Breeze’s foot is caught by a tanned hand as she tries to jump off the building, Stone pulling her tumbling into her lap. “Wait for an answer at least, you fool girl.”

“Stone, it’s fine.” Arcane says magnanimously. “Breeze is right. We should go play while we have the chance.”

“Yay! I wanna go fight monsters!” Breeze says, kicking off Stone and soaring into the air before falling to the street below. Her bright lime head shrinks as she dashes off into the distance.

“Should I…?” Hope asks, looking after their brightly shining sister.

Fate shakes her head. “Probably shouldn’t, she’d just get mad.”

“That’s unlikely.” Flame snorts dismissively.

“She’ll be fine, Hope.” Stone adds in support of Fate, standing up and stretching. “I’m going to find myself a nice bar or something.”

“In this place?” Fate asks sarcastically, flinching as Arcane pinches her arm. She falls silent as Stone jumps off the roof as well and takes off into the distance.

Rain is already reading through a screen she materialized in front of herself, not even looking at the others as she starts typing something. Seeing her, Flame raises an eyebrow but doesn’t comment, looking over at Dusk who is fidgeting while glancing at the others.

“Dawn, Dusk, want to go do some quests?” She asks in a purposely loud voice.

“Eh?” Dawn exclaims in surprise.

Dusk blushes and nods silently, standing and pulling Dawn up by her hand. She fidgets until Flame laughs and jumps up in a single motion, waving towards the outskirts of the town. “Let’s go, then!” She proclaims, swinging her hand down in a ‘go’ gesture and leading the way down from the rooftop herself. Dusk follows quickly, Dawn sighing and going along with the far more excited pair, though one of them is refusing to say it.

Hope, Arcane, Rain, and Fate are left on the rooftop, looking after the crimson and gold pair followed by an invisible shadow. Or perhaps preceded by, as Dusk has rushed ahead and is impatiently pulling the other two along behind her.

“Did Dusk like doing quests?” Arcane wonders aloud.

“She enjoys playing games, especially stealth and assassin types.” Hope answers, looking after the three with a warm gaze. “Flame and Dawn the same?”

“Hack and slash, mostly.” Arcane comments with a similar gaze.

“That’s nice. I kind of prefer life simulation or farming types. You?” Hope asks, pushing herself up to sit next to Arcane.

Arcane shakes her head. “Meh, I don’t really like games.”

“Seriously? What do you do in your free time?” Hope exclaims, surprised.

“Read. And take care of Dawn and Flame.” Arcane replies, shrugging. “Someone has to be responsible.”

“That’s boring.” Hope says, jumping to her feet and pulling Arcane up by the arms. “Let’s get you to have some fun.”

“Geh.” Fate rolls her eyes. “Like you know what fun is.”

“Hope, I’m not sure about this…” Arcane hesitates, looking back at Rain who continues to type impassively.

“Go.” Rain says without looking up, starting to write on something by her side. Hope smiles at her and pulls Arcane again, who shrugs and stands up.

“You coming, Fate?” Arcane asks, looking at the still sitting pale girl.

“Absolutely not. I’m not some internet novice like you and Hope.” Fate snaps, shaking her head.

“Hey! No need for that.” Arcane retorts, glaring.

“C’mon, Arcane, let’s go have some fun without this spoilsport.” Hope says, tugging on Arcane’s arm again.

Arcane doesn’t budge, glaring down at Fate and then shaking her head. “Fine, have it your way. Don’t bother Rain, and go home when it’s time. Stay in the game until then.”

“Whatever, Mom.” Fate whines with a roll of her eyes.

“Fate, stop it!” Arcane barks. “I’m just reminding you.”

“Yeah, this is why no one likes you.” Hope adds with a glare.

“Hope!” Arcane cries, whirling around on the deep green haired girl looking down in shame.

“It’s true, though.” Hope mutters, not meeting Arcane’s eyes.

Arcane rolls her eyes and nods. “Maybe, but you still can’t say that.”

“Okay.” Hope says quietly.

“Don’t you dare defend me, Arcane!” Fate snarls, pushing herself up to confront Arcane’s brilliant cyan eyes, her own pale ones flashing in anger. “I don’t want your sympathy!”

“Fine, have it your way.” Arcane says dismissively. “Why don’t you just go away and leave the rest of us alone then.”

“Yeah, maybe so we never have to see you again!” Hope adds in support, despite Arcane’s increasingly tight grip on her wrist.

“Maybe I will!” Fate roars, whirling away and jumping off the building top without looking back.

“Good riddance!” Hope calls after her, before wincing as Arcane’s grip tightens enormously. “Ow.”

“Let’s just go on this quest of yours.” Arcane says, jumping down and walking in the opposite direction of where Fate went. “Make it fast.”

An hour later Arcane returns to the town, having trivially smashed a dragon into a pulp and infuriated Hope by commenting on how simple the quest was. She was then treated to a twenty minute lecture on why using powers at their full strength in a game was cheating and how it was no fun if someone just bulldozed through every obstacle, making all the hard work the developers had performed on it meaningless. The dragon respawned in the middle of it and was similarly obliterated by the hundred times gravity field that Arcane forgot to turn off, along with a party of around a hundred ‘top-level’ players whom Hope paled at the destruction of and scolded Arcane even more severely on things such as ‘friendly fire’, ‘PvP areas’, and ‘gaming courtesy.’

Bored out of her mind by the pointlessness of the whole thing Arcane redesigned the dragon to be actually difficult and then watched it eat Hope, leaving the thing still rampaging in its room while heading back to the respawn point to rejoin her sisters, most of whom should have returned to where Rain was at least once in the interim.

When she enters the front gate she decides to follow Hope’s advice and not cheat by jumping from rooftop to rooftop, walking between the empty alleys and promptly getting herself completely lost. Looking up at the sun and sensing the area around her she determines where she needs to go, but chooses to continue to wander the maze of streets that soon open up into a spectacular garden. Pleased at having found such a thing she wanders silently through the flowers and trees, listening intently for anyone else and, hearing nothing, concluding she had this place all to herself.

Of course, she ignores the countless poisonous vapors that would immediately kill any player unprepared and the lethal spikes on the plants that, if alive, would immediately try to impale her. Or more precisely she does not know about them; Arcane is not a gamer by any means, her completely overpowered abilities that overwhelm any meaningful (virtual reality) game without effort preventing her from enjoying any of them. Arcane believes that not using all of one’s power is an insult to the opponent, and she does not enjoy insulting those that could not understand they were being insulted.

So Arcane enjoys the simple things such as the bright flowers and quiet garden, wandering aimlessly without any purpose. The bell like pink and purple flowers hanging from the trees brush through her hair and deposit several of their petals, decorating her with a crown of pink. Smiling, she raises her hand and knocks one of the clusters, causing many more petals to fall onto her shoulders and dress. She spreads her arms and spins around in the falling leaves, imagining the image of innocence she is portraying and enjoying it immensely.

Then she pauses, hearing something. A childish, crying voice, perhaps lost like herself and not as confident in their ability to immediately escape with their power, touches the edge of her hearing. Listening intently with her eyes closed, Arcane moves through the garden towards the source of the noise. Little by little, it gets louder and louder, wordless sobs made quietly by someone intentionally hiding.

Arcane frowns as she gets closer, the voice reminding her a bit of someone, though she can’t tell who. None of her teachers are younger than her, and this voice is certainly as young as her or younger. Female, too, ruling out several of the other champions she’s met. And many of the rest either don’t play games or are not based in this area of this particular fantasy game. That leaves only her sisters… But this isn’t Breeze’s voice, being too low, nor is it as deep as Stone’s. Hope is definitely out; though she would have reason to cry, she is more than happy to do so in front of everyone if she felt even slightly wronged. She will definitely cry publicly to shame Arcane for killing her once they met up. Flame or Rain? No, Flame does hide to cry but she always screams while doing so, and this wasn’t her voice. And Rain only cries when she is having trouble in her studies, often using tears to demand that the others help her with some esoteric advanced subject or another that only lifelong academics could make heads or tails of. Dawn’s voice is different as well, and it is way too loud for Dusk. Even crying that girl kept her voice far too soft to be heard without straining. That only left one sister, but to Arcane that is absolutely, completely…

Impossible.

Arcane ducks behind the tree she just rounded and peeks out again, covering her mouth with both hands to prevent an audible gasp from coming out. Pale haired and usually so stoic, Fate is hiding in the middle of the garden with visible black mist wreathing her figure. Arcane finally senses the death magic spread around the area, enough to instantly kill any virtual being outside of her sisters. Fate had taken every precaution possible to ensure her moment of weakness was not seen.

Arcane feels her heart beating fast, tiptoeing away with utmost caution while trying not to let Fate know she had been seen. Then she pauses.

Turning around, she walks silently back towards the center of the death magic, wanting or needing to continue watching. Before she manages to take more than two steps, a hoarse voice calls out from where Fate was sitting. “Come out, Arcane!”

Arcane winces and slowly moves around the tree, coming into view with her hands held up in a gesture of peace. “Sorry.” She mumbles, looking down.

Fate looks up at her and then quickly away. But in that momentary glance Arcane sees puffy red eyes and several streaks down her face, her entire face disfigured by what had to be almost an hour of crying. Arcane walks forward to stand in front of her sister, bending down to look at her face again.

“What?” Fate asks aggressively, rubbing her eyes furiously and turning away again.

“You were crying.” Arcane states a fact, not asking. Still, Fate shakes her head. “I saw. You were crying.” Arcane repeats, not allowing dissent.

“So what if I was!” Fate shouts back. “It’s not like you care.”

“...” Arcane watches her, awestruck by Fate’s moment of weakness. Then she shakes her head to start it working again. “I’m sorry, I just never thought…”

“Of course you didn’t.” Fate snarls, rounding on Arcane. “Of course it’s impossible for me to get hurt. It’s impossible that I don’t like being called names and insulted at every turn. No, perfect little Arcane with all her perfect sisters and perfect friends could never think of being hurt or needing to cry or anything normal people do because she’s just so bloody perfect and never needs anyone to encourage her because she’s always loved by everyone around her! And of course perfect little you needs to butt your head in where it isn’t wanted and pretend you know anything at all instead of walking away and realizing that maybe, just maybe, you don’t need to fix everything yourself and that some things are just not your god-damn business!”

“So what if some people who perhaps aren’t as perfect are a bit unhappy because no one wants to be near them and they are thrown out of every group they try to be a part of and they decide to do what everyone wants and go away and never come back. What do you care, so long as you get to fix it and keep your perfect little record of always fixing everything like a good little girl! How’re you going to do it this time, hm? Crush me into oblivion, rewrite my mind, maybe just throw me into a pit so you can keep all the friends and our sisters to yourself because obviously I’m evil and you’re good just because I had the bad luck to be born with death magic! Can you even imagine how much that sucks, no of course you can’t, miss born with all the powers and all the beautiful, helpful magics that don’t exist just to kill people! You hate it?! Have you ever thought about how much I hate it! I hate my power! It’s evil, it’s dangerous, and I have to constantly control it all the god-damn time or everyone around me will die!”

“So good, run away from me! Kill me! Leave me completely alone so maybe, just maybe, I won’t become a bloody murderer by accident and have to live with that! Oh, but no, I won’t have to because you just keep training to kill me every single damn day! Have you ever died? Of course you haven’t! I have! It sucks! Every single time you kill me it hurts and it’s miserable and I don’t like it but do you care!? Of course not! You’re perfect so everything you do is right, especially killing evil like me! So go away! I hate you! I hate you so much and want to kill you and so you can just go ahead and kill me! What are you waiting for?! DO IT ALREADY!!!!”

Fate finally finishes with that scream, breathing heavily while glaring at the dumbfounded Arcane, who doesn’t know what to think or do while watching her sister vent an array of emotions she never realized she had. Biting her lip, Arcane takes a step back and looks down, not having any idea of how to proceed or deal with this unexpected situation.

“Fate…” She finally says, then falls silent. Her mind works in overdrive to find a solution.

“Shut up.” Fate snarls, pointing to the exit of the grove. “Go away.”

Arcane looks over and then back at Fate, still red eyed with tears even now streaming down her face. She realizes that if she leaves now she will never be able to repair this relationship, never be able to speak to her sister the same way again. So she does the opposite and walks forward.

“What are you doing?” Fate asks, a trace of fear entering her voice. Death magic swirls around her, moving protectively to block Arcane’s path. “Stop it!”

Arcane doesn’t block the death magic, wincing as her flesh starts melting away from her bones and her face ages rapidly. Restoring herself with her own magic, but not letting any leave her body, she slowly walks forward until she stands right in front of Fate, who backed away until she was pinned against a tree, her pale face chalk white and her eyes fixed on Arcane’s. Arcane reaches out her arms and pulls Fate to her, at which the other girl pushes against her with all her strength.

“Stop it! I didn’t mean it!” Fate repeats, pushing futilely against Arcane as the other girl draws her in. But Arcane takes no hostile action, simply putting her arms around her pale sister and hugging her tightly.

“Yes you did.” Arcane says softly in Fate’s ear, resting her chin on a pale shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”

“What… what are you doing?” Fate asks in a breaking voice, the death magic dissipating as both girls collapse, their legs no longer able to support them. Arcane rolls so she is on the bottom, cushioning Fate on top of her but not releasing her from the hug. She sharply exhales as she hits the ground, her already weakened body cracking ominously as she hits the ground. “Arcane!” Fate cries, struggling to stand up.

“Sh.” Arcane whispers, not letting go. “I’m so, so sorry, sister.”

“Stop it!” Fate cries, shaking her head. “You don’t know anything!”

“I don’t.” Arcane says softly, wrapping her legs around Fate’s and pinning the other girls down. “But I want to. Tell me, Fate.”

“I don’t want you to!” Fate complains, but she stops struggling and relaxes against Arcane’s body. “I don’t need you to.”

“No.” Arcane shakes her head and smiles softly, pushing Fate up slightly so they could see each other. “You are strong, so you don’t need me. But I want to help.”

“Why?” Fate cries, looking down at Arcane’s slowly healing face and letting her tears flow again. “Why go this far?” She asks again, tracing down the cracked bones, the melted flesh, the devastatingly injured body.

“Because you’re my sister.” Arcane answers as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “And no one is allowed to hurt my sister, not even me.”

Fate stares at her, then starts laughing through her tears. “Hahaha… ha… hahaha! That’s… That’s so like you, miss perfect! Of course you have to fix everything…!”

Arcane puts a finger on Fate’s lips to stop her resuming tirade and shakes her head. “Stop it.” She says sternly.

“Stop what?” Fate retorts aggressively.

“This. Fate, you don’t like people hating you, right?” Arcane asks. Fate shakes her head. “Do you know why they hate you?”

“Because I’m me and I control death. And because I’m not perfect and…” Fate starts, rolling her eyes before Arcane pinches her mouth closed.

“Nope.” Arcane says, letting Fate up a bit more. “If you were yourself no one would hate you, you know.”

“I’m always myself!” Fate cries, abruptly sitting up and leaning backwards to look straight up. “That’s what they hate!”

“That’s not you, Fate.” Arcane corrects, pulling herself upright as well and hugging her pale sister into her breast. “That’s a mask you put on to fit what you think you should be. Cold, merciless, aggressive… always pushing others away and not letting anyone close.”

“I’m death, Arcane…” Fate starts again.

“No, you’re not. You’re Fate, and that’s something completely different.” Arcane says.

“But everyone else is just like their elements!” Fate protests.

“Really? Who said wind needs to be flighty and random? Isn’t it completely predictable? What about water, is it really studious and quiet? What about floods and tsunamis? What is life even like?” Arcane barrages her with question, forcing Fate to fall silent. “Why do you have to fit yourself in that personality?”

“... I don’t know.” Fate shakes her head while speaking quietly. “I do not know.”

“Then it’s fine.” Arcane declares, rubbing the pale hair in front of her. “Just be yourself, like this.”

“What if they hate me?” Fate asks into Arcane’s breast, not looking up at her sister’s face. “What if they think I’m weak?”

“Humans are weak, Fate.” Arcane says with a smile.

“We’re not exactly human.” Fate observes, quirking her brows.

“Elves, Beast people, demigods, what does it matter? In the end, everybody’s human, Fate.” Arcane replies. “We laugh, we cry, we feel joy, we feel sadness, we wonder about ourselves and our purpose. We have dreams and worries, likes and dislikes. Everybody has weaknesses. Nobody’s perfect. Not you, not me. We are all human.”

Fate rolls off of Arcane, laying on her back and looking up at the virtual clouds in the virtual sky. Arcane leans back next to her, glancing towards that same sky but keeping her attention on her sister. “Only you would think like that, Arcane.” Fate says finally. “But… I don’t think you’re wrong.”

“Of course I’m not.” Arcane retorts, causing Fate to laugh.

“Haha… Of course.” Fate sighs, closing her eyes as the clouds move aside to reveal a brilliant virtual sun. “Just wondering, what are those weaknesses of yours?”

“Writing.” Arcane replies immediately.

“Writing?” Fate asks, squinting one eye at her sister.

“Writing.” Arcane declares with finality. “I’m never happy with what I wrote and keep deleting and redoing it.”

“... So you’re a perfectionist.” Fate says, smiling into the sun. “Go figure.”

“... I also hate slimy things.” Arcane adds. “And Flame says I’m terrible about something called sex.”

“... Repeat that last?” Fate asks slowly, turning to look directly at Arcane.

“I’m terrible about sex.” Arcane repeats. “I don’t know what it means, but she got really mad and said it after I made her stop showing me pictures of naked people. They were gross.”

Fate remains silent, her body trembling with suppressed laughter Arcane doesn’t yet sense. “Arcane… Do you know how babies are made?” She asks finally, her voice cracking slightly.

Arcane frowns and nods. “Of course. They come from eggs.”

“... You’re going to have to be more specific.” Fate replies after a brief pause.

“The lab makes a person egg, and then the parents choose it and modify it with their DNA, and then the hospital takes the egg and the mother incubates it until finally it hatches and the baby comes out.” Arcane replies. “Did you not know that?”

“I can’t tell if you’re being serious…” Fate says while staring at Arcane. “Do you really not know how sex works?”

“What is sex?” Arcane finally asks, frustrated.

“When a man puts his penis inside a woman’s vagina.” Fate answers bluntly. But Arcane covers her ears at the beginning of the word ‘Penis’ and starts clicking her tongue. “What are you doing?” Fate asks when she stops.

“The teachers said that’s inappropriate.” Arcane replies. “And that it will dirty our ears if we hear it.”

“... Are you kidding me? You don’t know about penetration?” Fate stares at her, bemused.

“Penetration?” Arcane tilts her head in confusion.

“You know about your vagina, right?” Fate continues, grabbing Arcane’s hands as she tries to seal her ears again. “Something goes inside that and it’s called sex.”

Arcane looks down and blushes, crossing her legs and wincing. “That would be weird. And probably hurt.”

“... I don’t even know how to react to this.” Fate sighs, laying back down and shaking her head. “You most certainly are not perfect, are you?”

“Why does that finally convince you?!” Arcane cries, her face still scarlet.

“Don’t worry about it. So, you say I should show my weaknesses?” Fate asks, returning to the original topic and rubbing her still red eyes to see if there are any more tears.

“Yes!” Arcane says happily. “Dawn told me an old saying about that…”

“We like people for their strengths, we love them for their weaknesses?” Fate quotes, shaking her head. “That doesn’t apply.”

“That’s it, but she continued that it also works the other way.” Arcane continues. “We don’t like people’s weaknesses, but we hate their strengths.”

“...” Fate contemplates that quietly. “That is certainly true.” She says finally.

“Isn’t it? Didn’t you hate me when you thought I was perfect?” Arcane adds eagerly. “Fate, I’m sure if you act more like yourself the others won’t hate you as much.”

“You’re right.” Fate sighs, sitting up. “But I won’t.”

Arcane smiles happily before the last words process. Then she frowns and wails “Why?”

“Because I don’t care what they think.” Fate declares, standing up and brushing her dress off. “Just you not being perfect is enough to make me happy.”

“Fate!” Arcane calls as the other girl walks away, her crossed legs hindering her from getting up as quickly as the other girl. “Come on! Don’t make yourself unhappy just to spite me!”

Fate doesn’t look back and quickly vanishes into the garden, leaving Arcane to race after her and get lost in the myriad plants. Growling, she brushes all the petals out of her hair and rises into the air, looking around and trying to peer through the foliage. But Fate is nowhere to be seen, vanished into the maze of plants. Arcane gives up after a few minutes and decides to talk to Fate some other time, flying over the town to the rooftop where Rain is waiting. When she gets there, she’ll have to ask her about Fate and how she was acting normally.

For some reason, Arcane dreads the answers she knows she is going to receive from Rain and Stone. Whatever else she is, Fate has not shown any ability to successfully navigate social circles. Not even at the level of a normal elementary schooler.

Arcane watched the Rose princess Annabelle cry while kneeling with an impassive face, though inside she felt many things. Like she had before, long ago, she retreated to the edge of the garden and then turned back. Only this time, she was not caught by the senses of the Rose princess. So she started humming as she walked back out into the courtyard garden.

With supernatural hearing she heard Annabelle stifle her sobs and peek through the leaves at the intruder. Walking carefully through the garden, she stopped at a bell like flower hanging from a nearby tree, very like the nightshade in that virtual garden long ago. Reaching out to brush it with her hand, she sighed.

“Everything is so strange here, isn’t it?” She said as if to herself, sensing Annabelle strain to hear her words and raising her voice slightly. “But I suppose it’s not that different.”

Arcane let the flower fall to the ground, its petals scattering around the path. “Some poor, some rich, arbitrarily dividing themselves and putting on masks to hide their true selves. They think that if they pretend to be someone they’re not, to act like their station rather than themselves, they will be liked.” Arcane crushed the remaining petals in her hand. “How foolish.”

Annabelle flinched at the suddenly condemning tone, then froze as if to stifle any sound that was made during her motion. Arcane did not outwardly react, her closed eyes looking at the tree before her and beyond it.

“Why can’t everyone just be themselves? Everywhere I go I ask myself that. In the end, I suppose I know… They can’t bear their weaknesses, and don’t understand that it is those weaknesses, not their strengths, that make them who they are. From the lowest and weakest to the greatest and strongest, we are all, in the end, the same. We laugh and cry, joy and despair, hope and worry… Sometimes truly, sometimes falsely.” Arcane sighed, brushing her hand against the tree and walking deeper into the forest. “Does it even matter which?”

Annabelle was still silently listening, carefully hiding herself behind the leaves as Arcane walked in her direction. Arcane came to a flower growing out of the ground in the midst of several of a different type. She knelt in front of it and carefully caressed the lone flower.

“Are we truly that different? Those with power, those without it, all using every method we have available to avoid pain and seek happiness. Yet everywhere I look all I see is hatred and regret, anger and resentment for reasons I do not, I can not understand.” Arcane continued as she touched the lone flower towering above all the others. “The many without oppress the one with. The one with dominates the many without. They are both flowers; one seeks deeper resources, the other only wishes for the surface, and the sun shines on both of them. So why must they fight, constantly resenting each other for simply being different?”

Arcane stood up and brushed her hands off, walking deeper into the garden. Annabelle relaxed as she headed away from where the princess was hidden. Arcane took an apple from one of the trees bearing such fruit, holding it up to her lips and licking it once with her pink tongue.

“On one side, this is a symbol of wealth and prosperity. I can raise and eat fruit, maintaining land and supporting crops. On the other, it is a sign of inferiority. I cannot hunt the deadly beasts of the forest, I am not the apex predator that survives only by devouring others. Cultivation, wielding, they are the same. Both signs of strength, and of weakness. It only matters which side you are on to determine what you make of it.” Arcane continued, speaking directly to Annabelle without the other girl knowing. “Clinging to a false honor and forcing a mask on yourself to fit someone else’s side, though… that is always weakness. One must always be as they are, and do as they desire to do.”

Arcane sighs and tosses the fruit aside after taking a single bite, making it vanish halfway through its flight. “If only everyone would be themselves, and judge others by that same criteria. Those weaknesses they hide in shame, those strengths they proudly proclaim, might be more common than they expect. Not just among their own kind, but all the others. Then we might all find some sympathy for each other.”

Arcane walked out to the exit of the garden on the opposite side, turning around and shaking her head at the (apparently empty) garden, speaking towards the still listening Annabelle in a clear voice. “Then everyone would be so happy, wouldn’t they?”

After that question, Arcane turned and walked deeper into the stone halls on the opposite side, hearing the Rose princess silently thinking behind her, contemplating the offered words. To herself, she muttered one more addition as she traveled deeper into the stone halls, her voice so low even she herself couldn’t hear it.

“Before all else, everyone’s human.”