The streets of Matsue Japan were surprisingly sparse when they arrived. Here at the epicenter of the Wish Fish’s scheme, the effects of reality bending magic were starting to grow more severe, with warped spaces and twisted cracks in the sky becoming commonplace, and everyday people were fleeing for shelter rather than hunting down the source. Lee, one of the brave and stupid few looking for said source, summoned her map again, and found far fewer concentrations of magic left than she had been hoping for.

“We’re cutting it close,” Lee said. “But we should have time to track Kim down before we hit our deadline.”

“Your tracking spell can’t take us any closer?” Kraid said. He’d try himself, but he wasn’t as acquainted with Kim as Lee was.

“No. I’m not sure why,” Lee admitted. Judging by the mid-sized sedan currently floating a few inches off the ground, reality was a little too warped for any magic to be working right. “We’ll have to do it the old fashioned way.”

“There’s like a castle or something on that hill across the lake,” Harley said. “Want to start there?”

“No, Kim would want to be somewhere more normal,” Hawke said. “Something suburban. Homey.”

“Great, let’s just search every home in a city of tens of thousand of people,” Kraid said.

“Least she didn’t go for Tokyo,” Harley said.

“Tokyo or Utashinai, doesn’t matter, we don’t have time to go door to door,” Kraid said. “You met the fish, right? Try tracking the fish.”

“That could work,” Lee said. She started sweeping her fingers through the gestures of the spell. “He should be keeping her close, considering -Ow!”

Magic backlash sparked its way up Lee’s fingertips for what felt like the hundredth time this year. She brushed off the jolt and got to business.

“Good news, I know where he is, bad news, I think he knows we’re coming now,” Lee said. “So let’s hurry. Follow me.”

Everyone fell in line behind Lee as she dashed through the streets, hunting the trail like a magic bloodhound. She came to a screeching halt in front of a single house, one of many in a long row of similar buildings. Unlike the other houses, it was perfectly intact, perfectly normal even as reality fell apart around it.

“In there!”

Vell sprinted up the door and knocked. Kraid also knocked -the door off it’s hinges.

“No time for politeness, Harlan,” Kraid snapped. “Find the girl, save the world. You can apologize to the homeowners later.”

Kraid elbowed Vell out of the door and led the way inside. Thankfully Japan built their homes fairly small, so the residents weren’t hard to find. A shellshocked older couple and one young woman were staring at the intruders, aghast. Vell scanned them, and didn’t see a face he recognized.

“Do you have another daughter? I’m looking for Kim.”

The young woman scooted backwards, towards her presumed parents, who grabbed on to her protectively. Vell leaned sideways and looked at her from a different angle.

“Kim?”

The father said something back at them in Japanese.

“Oh, shit, no translation spell,” Harley said. The spell that blanketed the EOC campus was nowhere to be found here. “Lee?”

“On it. Come here, Hawke. You’re our point man.”

Unlike the rest of them, Kraid apparently spoke Japanese, and engaged in a short, frightened conversation with the family. After his brief discussion, Kraid eyed the corner of the room and snapped his fingers. A magical distortion appeared in the air, and the illusion that was hiding the Wish Fish vanished suspiciously quickly.

The once-small mackerel was now bloated to nearly the size of a great white shark, and he was glowing with barely-contained magical energies. The fact that he was floating in midair also gave some hints as to his newfound magical prowess.

“Well looky here,” Wish Fish said. “It’s the moron brigade, here to try and ruin my day. I was really hoping somebody would’ve wished you idiots out of existence.”

“Well that’s just rude,” Harley said. “What’d we ever do to you?”

“Oh, you’re right, I suppose that is a bit rude, you’ve been almost exclusively helpful so far,” Wish Fish taunted. “Really did a great job just letting all of Kim’s insecurities and doubts fester, giving me a lot of material to work with. And Lee, really good job on nearly tearing your whole little group apart, really gave Kim the final push I needed. Hook, line, and sinker, as the saying goes.”

“Go fuck yourself,” Lee snapped back, as she finished the translation spell. Hawke dove into conversation almost immediately, reporting back to the loopers as soon as he could.

“This is Kim, apparently,” he said, gesturing to the woman that looked nothing like Kim. Her attractiveness had always drawn unwanted attention, so it made sense that she might adopt a more plain looking form. “But she has no idea who any of us are.”

“Because she has what she wants! A normal life, ordinary, without any of you freaks disrupting it,” Wish Fish said. “Until now, anyway. But you’ll be out of here in no time, with nothing to show for it.”

“You’re remarkably confident,” Kraid said. He saw a lot of himself in the Wish Fish, but this confidence was unfamiliar. When he was trying to keep enemies at bay, he eschewed bluster in favor of misdirection.

Unless the bluster was a misdirection.

“You can talk to her all you want, try whatever spell you want,” Wish Fish said. “My wish work is ironclad. You’ll get nothing out of her.”

“Kraid, please try the memory thing,” Vell said. “And for god’s sake, don’t hurt her. This is hard enough already.”

“Hold your horses, Harlan,” Kraid said. He held up another bony finger. Wish Fish was trying a little too hard to keep them focused on ‘Kim’. Kraid’s mind drifted back to the illusion that had been “hiding” Wish Fish. It had been all too easy to find -because he was trying to keep them from finding something else.

“Oh what, the spooky arm man is acting all mysterious now? Go on, greaseball, try and fail!”

“I’m sure you’d like that, wouldn’t you,” Kraid said. He snapped his fingers once, then twice, as his spells fired and failed to find their mark. “I want you to know, Fishy, that I actually kind of respect you. You’ve set yourself up pretty good.”

Kraid snapped his fingers a third time, and a shimmer appeared in the air. Kraid’s face split in a wry smile.

“But you could never beat me,” he said. Then he reached into the distorted air with his blackened hand, tightened his grip, and pulled.

The fuller depths of the illusion shattered, and the false Kim huddled on the floor clutched her head tight as the Wish Fish’s elaborate scheme started to fall to pieces. Kraid’s hand pulled back, rejoining conventional reality once again -and pulled Kim’s inert body with it.

“There we go,” Kraid said, as he held the real Kim, limp like a ragdoll, in his hand. He even held her up to compare her to the fake Kim. “You’re a clever bastard, I’ll give you that.”

Kraid looked down at the fake Kim, and snapped his fingers again. The fake Kim went limp, and the real one sprang to life, in a sudden burst of panicked confusion. Kraid locked eyes with her and smiled.

“W-what’s-”

“Welcome back to the real world, Kimmy,” Kraid said. He dropped Kim and let her stumble on the ground, barely staying on her feet. She looked around, confused, and then looked at her own hands. After a moment of silent staring, she looked up at the floating Wish Fish.

“You said the wish would work,” Kim whimpered. “You said I’d be human.”

“It did,” the Wish Fish stammered. “You were! He messed up-”

“Your charade,” Kraid interrupted. He gestured to the Wish Fish with his skeletal hand, and then to Kim. “To the Fish’s credit, Kimmy, he did the best he could. Transplanted a bit of your consciousness onto some random human girl to make you feel like you were human. But even with all the power and all the wishes in the world, he can’t really make you human.”

Kraid reached into his pocket and withdrew the black chunk of soulstone, waving it in Kim’s direction.

“He can’t fix what’s wrong with you,” Kraid taunted. “He can’t give you what you’re missing.”

With one final malevolent flourish, Kraid leaned in close, locking eyes with Kim, and tapped the soulstone against her chest. She winced -at nothing. The rock remained cold, dead, and inert.

“Because you,” Kraid taunted. “Don’t have a soul.”

Amid the maelstrom of reality’s eventual collapse, the room fell silent. Kraid lived for moments like this. Getting to watch the slow, creeping despair that sank into Kim’s face as every fear she’d ever had, every worst-case-scenario she’d ever imagined, came true all at once. The utter misery grew so deep that the light sank out of Kim’s eyes, and she fell backwards, limp and motionless, lacking the will to even move.

“Heh.”

Kraid turned his back to the scene of utter despair, and focused on the Wish Fish.

While Kraid’s back was turned, the random family who’d got caught up in Wish Fish’s machinations fled. The floating fish flailed for a moment, then stopped in place, and the glow started to get ever brighter. He kicked his plan into top gear, killing off whatever wish-granters were left to grab onto as much power as possible.

“Don’t listen to him, Kim, I can fix this! I can do anything! I’ve got enough power now, I can do it!”

Lee looked at her friends and nodded. In spite of Kim’s unfortunate circumstances, they were reaching a critical threshold, and had to act fast. One more wish could undo all of reality -and rebuild it, provided it was the right wish.

“If you want to grant a wish, I’ve got one for you,” Lee said. “Look at me. I wish-”

There was a faint snapping sound. Lee paused mid-sentence, and put a hand on her chest as the color rapidly drained out of her face.

“Ah. Harley, don’t-”

Lee collapsed backwards, nearly knocking over Harley as she fell. Harley grabbed on to her, held her arm for a moment, and felt no pulse. In shock, she looked up at Kraid. His skeletal hand was dripping red ichor, flowing from the intact heart he held in his hands.

“Told you I could do it,” Kraid said.

“You fucking-”

The next execution came with no such artistry. Harley vanished in a puff of superheated air and ash before she could even finish her insult. Kraid tossed aside the bloody heart and shrugged towards Joan and Vell.

“Come on, you had to have seen this coming, right?” Kraid said. “Right? Am I right? I don’t know, people tend to forget, just because I’m sarcastic sometimes, but-”

There were bullets bouncing off Kraid’s face now, but none of Vell’s guns could pierce Kraid’s defensive wards, nor could any magic Joan could muster get past his shields.

“-I’m pure fucking evil.”

Kraid swept his hands, and Joan gave a small grunt of pain before she fell into two distinct pieces, cut in half at the waist.

“Which is a shame, because no one else really appreciates the dramatic flourishes,” Kraid said. “I mean, look at her, Vell, cut in half, just like you, the guy she was chasing all that time. I really wish you could appreciate the irony instead of just shooting me.”

The shooting came to an end as Kraid flicked his wrist and tossed the guns aside with magical force, then drew Vell close, face to face with Kraid, close enough that the next taunts came as a whisper.

“Oh don’t worry, Vell, you’ll see them again,” Kraid said. “Probably briefly, but eh, who knows, maybe I’ll decide to keep you alive. Not like I’ll have any reason to be afraid of you idiots once I’m in the time loops too.”

Kraid’s magic kept Vell mostly paralyzed, but he’d left a little wiggle room just for the satisfaction of watching Vell’s eyes go wide. The thought of how and when Kraid had learned about the loops was terrifying enough, and the hunger in Kraid’s eyes was another horror entirely. For all Kraid’s evil, he was usually cold, calculating, and calm about his work. But when he talked about the time loops, there was something manic in his eyes. Something obsessive -hungry.

“That’s right, I know,” Kraid taunted. “And god, what a shitshow. All those second chances, and they still weren’t enough! You still fell for everything! Sent Joan to distract you, and you never noticed me interrogating your buddy Derek. Didn’t put the pieces together that I sent Lee’s dad and Pradav to put some cracks in your little friend group, either, which, have to say, worked out so much better than I expected.”

Kraid nodded his head at Lee’s heart and the smear of ash that had once been Harley.

“Points for getting them back together, but, eh, too little too late,” Kraid said. “God. It really is going to be too easy getting rid of you once I’m in control of the loops.”

And then, to prevent any last minute deus ex machina’s from that rune of Vell’s, Kraid snapped his fingers and sent him flying, roaring away from the scene at high speeds. The master of evil brushed his hands clean, stepped past the corpses, and turned his attention back to the Wish Fish. The sound of chattering teeth was only a slight distraction, but it still demanded his attention. Kraid turned to look at the side of the room.

Kim was still inert in the corner, and standing over her, with a heavy book held in his hands like a crude weapon, was Hawke, knees shaking, teeth chattering, and sweat pouring down his forehead.

“You’re still here? I figured you’d run off as soon as possible.”

The attention made Hawke shiver, but he didn’t move. He stood, frozen in place by terror, but firmly planted between Kim and Kraid.

“Do you think you’re protecting her?” Kraid asked. Hawke was too terrified to respond, but he stood his ground. “Aw, that’s cute.”

Kraid snapped his fingers, and Hawke’s head exploded.

“I hate cute,” Kraid said to the corpse. He looked at the inert Kim for a moment, gave one derisive snort at the motionless form, and then turned to the Wish Fish. “Let’s see. Got to do some careful wording here, make sure you don’t try to screw me…”

On the ground, Kim’s body didn’t move, but her mind raced. It raced with images of Lee and Harley standing together again, of Hawke standing over her, trying to protect her. The fragments of memory were painful, and false. Just digital recordings on a digital mind, no different than a video any camera could take. Kim focused on that false image of Hawke, and deleted it. And it was gone.

But it still hurt.

Kim focused again. She could no longer visualize Hawke’s terror, or his trembling figure trying to protect her, but she still felt sad, even though there was nothing material to attach that “emotion” to. Kim deleted the backup of the video file, and deleted the memory of herself deleting all of that. Yet the sadness lingered.

Any tangible files relating to Hawke’s last stand had been completely erased from Kim’s hard drive, but she still felt a hollow pain she could not place, still felt the lingering ache of a lost friend. She searched through root directories and backups of backups to try and find any element of that memory, and found nothing. Nothing to connect to the sadness she still felt.

Though Kim’s body remained motionless, her mind continued to race at supercomputer speeds towards one conclusion. There was something else. She’d gone to a hard drive and deleted a video file, but she had not, could not delete the memory. Because the memory existed somewhere else. On something different.

Something real.

Kim’s body moved, subtly, to snap her fingers.

“Let’s see...God I wish I had my legal department right now, I had a whole team ready for things like this,” Kraid said. “Maybe this ‘with no alternative interpretations or manipulations of’ -no, because then who defines ‘alternative’.”

The Wish Fish, who was powerless to act without someone first making a wish, was lingering in the air and hoping that Kraid’s inevitable wish would come with some kind of loophole. He scanned the room, saw the various bodies, and began to think there was slim chance of that. Then, he looked to the side, and for the first time in his life, he was grateful he had no facial muscles to have expressions with. He didn’t think he could hide the look of surprise on his face when Kim started to get up -and when she set herself on fire.

Over the years, Kraid had developed one of the keenest minds in human history, giving him the ability to analyze any situation at remarkable speeds. He put that analytical skill to use when he saw a light flare behind him and turned to catch his first glimpse of Kim. Her synthetic flesh was already melting under the heat of pyrokinetic flames that engulfed her entire body, exposing the metal shell beneath. Kraid was getting a very good look at that metal frame right now. The knuckles, specifically, which were racing towards his chin at remarkable speeds.

In that short split second between seeing Kim and feeling his skin start to sizzle, Kraid’s legendary analytical skills came to a quick conclusion. Kim was a robot. Kim was doing magic. That was impossible.

Kraid didn’t have wards against the impossible.

The first white-hot punch hit his jaw. Magic flames seared his skin, and metal knuckles cracked the bone. It was a devastating blow made all the more effective by the fact Kraid hadn’t actually felt pain in more than thirty years. He didn’t have to wait nearly so long for his second dose of pain. Kim punched him in the gut with a flaming fist, and then knocked his legs out from under him, throwing him to the ground.

Molten pieces of synthetic flesh fell away from her metallic frame as Kim struck again, and again, never giving Kraid a moment to breath, much less retaliate. With every punch, more of her synthetic shell burned away, until she stood above Kraid as pure metal and fire. The last thing Kraid ever saw was the exposed metal of her chest, with the ten-lined rune glowing as bright as a star. Then Kim punched one more time, and everything went dark.

Kim didn’t know if Kraid was dead or not. She didn’t really care. All she needed was for him to be quiet for a moment. She turned and faced the Wish Fish.

“Wish Fish! You owe me a wish!”

“Yes ma’am,” Wish Fish said. In his mind, Kim was far more likely to make a wish with an exploitable loophole.

“I wish I had to go to class today.”

The wish was made, the limit was crossed, and reality began to unwind -and then rewind.

Vell woke up with a shock so hard he nearly leapt out of bed. He looked to his right, and saw the bed empty, and looked to his left, and found his dorm room exactly as he’d left it, packed up and ready for the last day of school. He found his phone and called everyone at once in a conference call.

“What’s going on? Are we back? Is everyone okay?”

“I’m here,” Hawke said.

“I’m alright,” Lee sounded off.

“Oh, thank god,” Harley said. Even through the phone, her relief was obvious.

“Hawke, did you do something?”

“No, I’m sorry, I was so scared I was frozen until he- I’m sorry, I could’ve- what happened?”

“I don’t know,” Vell said. “But I think Kraid might’ve-”

“Kraid didn’t do shit,” Kim said. “You’re welcome.”

Everyone breathed a simultaneous sigh of relief.

“Kim? Are you okay?” Hawke asked. “What happened?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Kim said. “I know that was a bit of a mess, but...it’s over. And I’m making sure it never happens again right now. See you at breakfast.”

Kim hung up, and looked down at the waves. A tiny mackerel was cowering in the water, as small and pathetic as he deserved to be.

“Well? Get to it.”

“I know, I’m just- are you sure? There’s really only one chance here,” the Wish Fish said. “If I grant this wish we’ll never, ever be able to grant a wish again, so I want you to think about this, right?”

“I know,” Kim said. “I know what I am. I know what I want. Now grant the wish.”

“Okay, just one more confirmation, are you really one hundred percent-”

“Hey, fish, tell you what, if you grant the wish right now, I’ll let you swim off into the ocean right away,” Kim said. “Stall any longer, and well, all your buddies like the Fairies and the Cintamani stone and the Djinn might catch up to you. I told them all what you were going to do to them after your plan got moving, and they did not seem happy.”

“What! When did- How do you know that?”

“I’m a bit magical,” Kim spat. “Grant the wish.”

The Wish Fish would’ve cried if he’d been able to, but there was nothing he could do, so he bit down, closed his eyes, and granted the last wish.

The loopers gathered around their usual table in the dining hall earlier than they ever had before. It had taken a bit for everyone to stop hugging, but the wary stares of the normal dining hall residents had made it a little awkward. None of the bystanders had any idea how narrowly the end of the world had been averted. And that was the point, the loopers supposed.

“I wonder what Kim did,” Harley said. “What she’s doing now.”

“Whatever it is, we owe her,” Vell said. “I don’t know how, but she singlehandedly saved reality.”

“Man, I hope she’s not the type to hold that over us, because that is some serious leverage,” Harley said. “If it were me I would ride that high for years.”

“Oh, we’d humble you soon enough, dear,” Lee said. Harley smiled to herself. She really liked it when Lee called her ‘dear’.

Vell was the first one to notice the shocked gasps at the edges of the dining hall. He turned his head, and the others followed suit. The early morning breakfast crowds made it hard to see the source of the disturbance, until it stepped up and took a seat at their table. Vell just stared for a second.

“Kim?”

The mechanical body waved back at him, and a cheery smile appeared on the illuminated diodes that made up its face. Every part of Kim that had been built in the image of humanity was gone, replaced by a metal shell that reflected what she really was: a machine. The basic form of her new body still imitated the shape of a human, but it was unmistakably a robot, polished gunmetal gray from head to toe, with a rounded screen for a face and two shifting, angular antenna where ears might be.

“Good morning,” Kim said. Her voice was slightly more electronic sounding, but still recognizable as Kim. “Do you like my new haircut?”

“Kim, what is...what did you do?”

“Got a makeover,” Kim said. She swung her metallic legs as she spoke, getting a feel for her new body.

“Is...did you wish for this?” Lee asked.

“Yeah. Though, I, uh, did try and wish to end world hunger or cure all disease first,” Kim admitted. Two red dots appeared on her face, mimicking a sheepish blush. “Turns out the Fish kind of needed my magic to pull off that kind of stuff. A makeover was doable, though.”

“Well, you tried,” Harley said. “So, this is the new you, then?”

“Maybe. It’s something I’m trying on, might change it later. I’m just experimenting, getting a feel for what I am. What I...”

Kim looked at the table. She could almost see her reflection in the polished surface of the table. It still didn’t look exactly right. But it felt closer.

“I don’t know what I am yet. I know what I’m not, and I’m sure not like any of you. But I don’t need to be.”

Kim held up her hand, and snapped two fingers together, which made a clanging sound. A spark of fire appeared on her fingertips and vanished in a flash, prompting excited gasps from everyone nearby.

“I am something,” Kim said. A smile flashed on her illuminated face. “And whatever that something is, I like it. I’m me. And that’s enough.”

She still did not understand the nature of her existence, but Kim no longer felt any need to do so. Her life did not need to be dissected, analyzed or justified. Her life only needed to be lived. It would be an odd, confusing, often frightening life, but it was hers to live in whatever way she chose.

“More than enough,” Lee assured her.

“Enough to save all our asses and then some,” Harley said.

“Well, I can’t take all the credit,” Kim said. She stood up again, and pulled Hawke to his feet. “Thank you.”

Kim leaned forward, and wrapped metal arms around Hawke in a warm embrace. He didn’t know what he’d done to deserve the hug, but he accepted it all the same. Kim pulled him tight, lingering in a touch she would’ve once recoiled from. It still didn’t feel quite right, but it felt better than before. She had no doubt it would keep getting better.