“...and so, the hero, after signing this agreement, agrees that it will not terminate by any unexpected events before they are officially cleared of duty, by each of the interested parties, the full list of each can be found in the appendix attached to each of the sheep-skin parchment copies of this agreement, and available...”

Initially, Mary was just glad that it was one of the prerogatives of the nice lady from information to bestow copies of signed agreements upon unfortunate students. But now...

“The unexpected events, mentioned in paragraph 42 z of the agreement, include, but are not limited to: physical illness, mental illness, regular imprisonment, extra-planar imprisonment, insanity, an unusual amount of homework, death, death of a relative, pregnancy, overeating...”

She hoped that if she read more, it would stop sounding so absurd. Spoiler alert: it didn't.

“...therefore, in the event of death, the hero agrees not to proceed towards the final afterlife. Rather, based on the agreement signed between the government and the union of major hells and paradises gatekeepers, the hero's soul will be placed in a temporary storage unit, unless the clearance for their departure is obtained and delivered to the appropriate office, the entire multiverse ends, or the heroing agreement terminates, had the termination date been included...”

Guess if Mary's agreement had a termination date.

“...until then, the hero will be made available for any revival attempts by the government, or any of the authorized academies' officials, for any of the purposes described in attachment twenty-two of this agreement...”

Wait. So...

“This agreement can only be terminated by a whole Council of All Elders or the Higher Conglomerate, provided that the hero provides them with the written permission from all of said hero's grandparents, or by the Author himself. Any attempt to terminate it in any other means will be met with punishment designated by any willing government employee.”

Mary put the agreement down. It was...well, bad didn't quite say it, did it?

“So,” Mary asked her pet, “I don't think you could explain how it makes sense, can you?”

Mossie remained silent, the dim light of its reflectors revealing nothing of its emotions. Did it even have emotions? Empathy? Yeah, whatever... at least she didn't get a fine this time.

She walked down the academy streets as if in a trance, crossing patches of shadows broken only by occasional lantern or windows of some strange building. The nights were cold here, but Mary's numbness made the stings of coolness on her skin bearable. How did she end up like this? Well, ok, she knew how... But why? Ok, she wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer to that, actually. But...

A quiet, yet recognizable through familiarity sound broke Mary out of her thoughts. Someone was sobbing, and trying really hard to keep it down. Back in the regular school, she usually pretended she didn't hear when people cried - like, that was the point of trying to hide it, and after all, what could she even do? But here, in the cold night, where Author-knows-whats walked the streets at this hour... Mary was actually quite close to her dorm, but the sobs were coming from a different direction. She hesitated for a moment - did this person want to be found? If not, finding them would be quite embarrassing... but, after all, she only had a few more years at best before an indefinite time in some kind of temporary-purgatory stuff, so it wasn't like she'd have to be dying of embarrassment for too long anyway...

Mary entered an alley between two abandoned-looking apartment blocks, which looked too normal for this crazy place. Unfortunately, it was the depressive variant of 'a drunk hobo freezing to death on a street'-normal, not 'a hot dinner and a fantasy book to read'-normal. The street ended with a clean, snow-white building declaring itself as 'Depression clinic'. None of its many windows had a light in them.

In the corner, a small girl, nine-, maybe ten-years-old tops. She was hugging her knees and trying to make the outside world disappear by not looking at it. (Un)fortunately, the world wasn't going anywhere. In the opposite corner, a few rats were sitting in a circle and occasionally throwing some sort of cards on the ground, but even they spared the girl only an occasional glance. They looked nowhere near as graceful (nor annoying) as the spoiled brat Mary and her previous party rescued, but their apathy wasn't something she liked either.

To Mary's surprise, there was a tiny robot flying by the small heroine, occasionally bumping into her sobbing form. It was a rather weird behaviour for an SJW, or at least, Mossie never did anything like that. Or maybe it was her bot that was faulty? Hm...

The girl didn't seem to notice Mary's arrival - she was too busy shaking and further staining her already dirty clothes. The heroine uncertainly walked towards the child and knelt a few feet away from her.

“Hey,” she said softly.

The girl's yelped and tried to jump away, which earned her a collision with a nearby wall and a few more stains on the t-shirt. So much for not startling her... The other SJW looked at Mary for a few seconds, then buzzed a bit louder before returning to its previous occupation.

“It's okay. I won't hurt you,” Mary tried again to no avail. The kid seemed too terrified to respond. She looked at the older heroine with wide, red eyes.

The change in posture revealed the child hands, or specifically - left hand. It was clutching the right one, which was covered in some sort of metal glove, which had a lot of blinking lights and a single barrel instead of fingers. It didn't look child-friendly.

“Hey, it's really cold here. Would you mind if I warm us up a bit?” She raised a hand and started a safe (well, not flying or exploding) version of the fireball spell.

This got a reaction out of the kid. Unfortunately, it wasn't the reaction Mary hoped for - the kid wailed and tried to push herself further into the corner.

“Ok, it's ok, I'm turning it off!” She let the flame die and opened her hands to demonstrate it. Unfortunately, the entire getting used to darkness her eyes had previously done? Yeah, right... Good job Mary, that went well... try seeing something in the SJWs reflector's lights now...

She waited for a while until the girl seemed mostly stable again. Unfortunately, the air was getting stabler too, and the slower the particles moved, the harder it was for Mary to ignore their laziness. She had to do something, but what?

“I'm Mary. What's your name?” she asked slowly, careful to keep her empty hands visible.

“R-r-rose,” the girl stammered. So she could still talk, there was that at least. Her shaking slowed down, but at this temperature, it wasn't necessarily a good thing.

“Hey Rose, nice to meet you! I'll walk to you now, ok?” Mary slowly crawled forward without rising from her knees, avoiding any sudden movements. The child didn't react, and even allowed her to wrap an arm around her - the girl seriously needed to get inside, her skin wasn't nearly as warm as it should. “Why are you here, Rose? Shouldn't you be in your room at this hour?”

“I-I... I can't go there. S-s-stella said I can't s-sleep t-there u-until I l-learn it.” Her weapon-bearing hand twitched slightly.

“How about I take you to my room? I have a lot of space there, and it is really warm. Your friend could play with Mossie...” The other robot surprisingly tilted forward and back as if nodding and blinked its lamps a few times into its little heroine's direction. Mossie flew from above Mary's shoulder and did a lap around the other bot.

“M-Mr Spoo w-would b-be happy... b-but S-stella...”

“She won't know about a thing, okay? It will be just you and me, and we'll have a password, and we won't tell her what it'll be.”

“P-p-promise?” the girl asked?

“I promise,” Mary said, and helped the girl back to her feet. Half carrying her to the dorm, she wondered if it was her, or if the stars really were unusually blinky tonight...