Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/7504297.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Underage
  Category:
      F/M, Gen
  Fandom:
      Fullmetal_Alchemist_(Anime_2003), Mahou_Shoujo_Madoka_Magika_|_Puella
      Magi_Madoka_Magica, Harry_Potter_-_J._K._Rowling
  Character:
      Kyubey, Original_Characters
  Additional Tags:
      Magical_Girls, Alchemy, Homunculi, Bad_Ending, Explicit_Consent, Kyubey
      is_Awful, Original_Character(s), POV_Original_Character, POV_First_Person
  Series:
      Part 3 of The_Iron_Sole_Alchemist
  Stats:
      Published: 2016-07-16 Chapters: 8/8 Words: 25610
****** The Iron Sole Alchemist and Magical Girl Sloth ******
by Howlin_the_Werewolf
Summary
     After using the Gate of Truth to travel between worlds, Sloth, Greed,
     and Loki come to a world that just might be too much for them to
     handle. There, a magical creature offers Sloth the chance to undo the
     horrible events of her past, but the price isn't clear until the
     contract has been sealed.
***** A New Magical Girl is Born *****
The Iron Sole Alchemist and Magical Girl Sloth (Chapter 1) A New Magical Girl
is Born
by Howlin
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or
characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation.
This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)
                                     * * *
Note:
This story is an immediate sequel to The Iron Sole Alchemist goes to Hogwarts,
which is itself a sequel to The Iron Sole Alchemist. Those stories introduce
characters, events, and concepts. You may not understand everything if you have
not read the previous stories.
As a timeline note for the Madoka Magicka portion of this crossover, this takes
place in a world set before the events of the series. I may, at some point,
address the consequences of Madoka's wish for the events that follow, but all
events in this story are before Homura's time travel and Madoka's wish.
                                     * * *
A blue transmutation circle drew itself on an empty street. Once complete, it
raised off the ground revealing myself, Sloth, and Loki. We glanced around at
the enormous skyscrapers covered in windows and the clean, clear streets. Sloth
and I wore our default black outfits, but used our human appearances for the
moment. Each of us had a shoulder bag containing everything we expected to need
when exploring this new universe.
"I'd say that was our best landing yet," said Sloth. "No one was around to see
us, we didn't emerge into a top secret facility and have to explain ourselves.
We're even far enough off to the side of the street that if a car was coming,
we wouldn't get hit."
Loki sniffed the air of this new world. I dropped my bag and walked a few feet
down the street. Once I was out of range of the red stones in my bag, I stomped
my right foot hard. The square of concrete sidewalk I stepped on glowed blue
and a short pillar of concrete rose up from the sidewalk to the height of my
waist. Another stomp and the sidewalk was returned to its original state with
another burst of blue alchemic light.
"Our powers seem to be working normally," I said as I retrieved my bag.
"So, what's our first step?" asked Sloth.
"We should try to find a library," I said, looking both ways down the street.
"It'll be easier to blend in once we know what's common knowledge in this
world."
One direction being as good as another, we started walking down the street. The
first people we saw looked afraid of us and crossed the street to avoid us. On
a hunch, Sloth and I stepped into an alley and used our shape shifting powers
to alter the appearance of our clothing. The black leather showing off our
oroboros marks was replaced by blue jeans and a turtleneck sweater for me and
an outfit of shorts and t-shirt for sloth, mimicking the clothing style of the
first people we'd seen.
It worked, and the next people we saw made no move to back away and directed us
toward a library when asked. I noticed a lot of unusual hair and eye colors as
the three of us made our way through the crowds. Tonks' preferred bubble gum
pink hair wouldn't have raised an eyebrow in this world. In fact, I was pretty
sure I saw a girl with that as her eye color.
The library didn't allow dogs, so I took a seat on a nearby bench with Loki
while Sloth went inside. I leaned back and enjoyed the warmth of the sun on my
face. I took my silver pocket watch out and set it to the local time using a
nearby clock mounted on a lamp post. Making note of the time, I snapped the
watch shut and waited.
Half an hour later, I flipped my watch back open. Looking at the mirror affixed
to the lid, I said, "Sloth." A moment later, her face appeared in the mirror.
"How's the research going?" I asked.
"There's some new stuff on computers and a few physics ideas I haven't heard of
before, but otherwise nothing that would have been out of place in a muggle
library in the last world," replied Sloth.
"So, they don't know about magic or alchemy?" I asked.
"Or automail. I checked," added Sloth.
"No way to tell if someone's covering it up here," I mused.
"I just finished assimilating all the new stuff," said Sloth. "I'll come out
and give you an imprint."
Sloth's face vanished from the communication mirror and I snapped my watch
shut. A minute later, the short, brown haired, blue eyed girl exited the
library and sat down on the bench next to me. She clapped and placed a palm in
the center of my chest, where my oroboros mark was hidden beneath my clothes.
In an instant, knowledge of this world's science flashed into my mind.
"What do you think, Greed?" asked Sloth.
"Well, this is definitely the most advanced world yet in terms of particle
physics, astrophysics, chemistry, and computer science," I said. "That
information's pretty valuable on its own. I say we get a place to stay, poke
around a bit to see if there's something like the Ministry of Magic hiding
things here, and pick up some more science books to take home."
"How long do you want to give poking around?" asked Sloth.
I shrugged. "Maybe a week? If we don't find anything in that time, either it
isn't here or it's hiding so well we won't find it."
                                     * * *
Selling gold at an appropriate shop got Sloth and I plenty of local money.
Finding a hotel willing to allow pets and overlook our lack of identification
was a little harder, but in any world, having unlimited funds made things much
easier. That night, I noted that this world's stars were different from those
in our world. The planets I could observe with my brass telescope were the
same, but there were more and brighter stars in parts of the sky I was used to
being empty.
Sloth took Loki for a walk around town to check for any signs of magical
creatures hiding among the human population while I studied at the library. The
astronomy and astrophysics texts I looked through suggested this was a far
younger universe than I'd previously arrived in. That raised questions, since
the heavier elements that made up this solar system shouldn't have had time to
form based on the models of star formation I was used to.
While I was comparing cosmology models in an effort to make some sense of this,
Sloth's voice came from my pocket saying, "Greed." I took out my pocket watch
and flipped it open, revealing Sloth's face reflected in the communication
mirror.
"What's up?" I asked.
"There's definitely something hiding here," said Sloth. "Something just tried
to read my mind."
"Where are you?" I asked, getting to my feet.
"I'm down an alley a couple blocks north of the hotel. I- Oh. I think I found
it." She was looking away from the mirror.
"I'll be right there," I promised, rushing out of the library.
I didn't have far to travel. When I got there, Sloth was staring at an empty
space near a dumpster and Loki was looking around confused. Turning to look at
me, Sloth said, "He can't talk so he was trying to communicate with me using
telepathy."
"Is he... still here?" I asked.
Turning to stare at the same spot, Sloth reported, "He says normal people can't
see him."
"Is this like the thestrals?" I asked.
"I think so," replied Sloth.
"Hm... Let me try something," I said, taking the false eye that had belonged to
Alistor Moody out of my bag. My right eye shriveled in its socket and
disappeared, and I inserted the magical prosthetic. The electric blue eye,
looking unnatural in my socket before it started moving independently, swiveled
to follow Sloth's gaze.
The powerful enchantments laid on the eye allowed its wearer to see through
solid matter, and penetrated even the most potent forms of invisibility.
Through it, I made out the features of the creature telepathically
communicating with Sloth.
It was a quadruped, covered in white fur. Its hind legs were longer than its
front, like a rabbit's, and it had a long, fluffy tail that swished to and fro.
A red, outlined egg pattern was in the center of its back. The creature had an
almost perfectly oval head with an unmoving, catlike mouth. Red, pupil less
eyes were open wide enough to be perfect circles. It had what appeared to be
pointed, catlike ears, but extending out from them, draping nearly to the
ground, were a pair of tentacles. Each of those tentacles was ornamented by
three round, red jewels near the hand like terminus, and a single gold ring
that seemed to hover halfway down the tentacle.
"Can you see me now?" came a cheerful, high pitched voice at the outermost
layer of my occlumency barriers.
"I can," I deliberately thought back.
"Wait, why can I hear Greed?" came Sloth's thoughts.
"I'm acting as a relay," replied the creature. "Neat trick, right?"
"Okay, so who are you?" I thought to the creature.
"My name is Kyubey."
"Do you know why I can see you and Greed can't?" asked Sloth.
"It's because he isn't a candidate," replied Kyubey. "You can help me, though.
I'd like you to make a contract with me and become a magical girl."
"What's a magical girl?" asked Sloth.
"It works like this," said Kyubey. "I will grant you one wish. In exchange,
your Soul Gem is created. But if you have a Soul Gem, it will be your duty to
fight witches."
"Fight witches?" I protested. "Some of our best friends are witches."
Kyubey tilted his head and said, "I'm not sure who or what your friends are,
but the witches I'm talking about are magical beings born of curses that spread
anger, depression, hatrid, and misery."
"Okay, so not the same sort of witches we know," said Sloth. "What's a Soul
Gem?"
"A Soul Gem is the proof that you are a magical girl and the source of your
powers," explained Kyubey.
"And," Sloth began. There was a hesitant tone in her thoughts. "This wish. What
are the limits on that?"
"I can grant any miracle, no matter how impossible," replied Kyubey. "If
there's a wish you would risk your life for, I can make it come true."
"Risk your life?" I asked.
"Witches are very dangerous," said Kyubey in his same cheerful tone. "Part of
why I'm so eager to make a contract with you is that the magical girls that
used to patrol this territory fell recently, and as a result, the witches have
been breeding out of control."
"Well, that's not an offer you get every day," thought Sloth. "I think I need
more information before I commit to anything."
"Of course," replied Kyubey. "It's one of my duties to provide important
information to magical girls."
"Can you tell us more about these witches?" asked Sloth. "Maybe show us one?
I'm not going to commit to fighting them until I'm convinced fighting them is
the right thing to do."
"Ordinarily, a witch would be very difficult to find without a Soul Gem," said
Kyubey, "but since there are so many in the area, I might be able to help you
find one without contracting. Witches are dangerous, though. Ordinary humans
don't stand a chance against them."
"Good thing we aren't ordinary humans, then," I replied. "We can hold our own
in a fight if it comes to that."
                                     * * *
Kyubey led us along train tracks, through red light districts, near hospitals,
and along the edge of tall buildings. Finally, in a narrow alleyway, a circular
disk of light appeared in front of us. There was a butterfly in the center and
a ring of unknown runes along the edge. Kyubey stepped through and Sloth, Loki,
and I followed.
We were no longer in the alley. There were superficial similarities to the
alley we'd left, including tall buildings on all sides flanked by winding fire
escapes, but the space around us was wider, and the buildings enclosed us on
all four sides. There was no sign of the passage we'd entered through.
"Be careful," said Kyubey. "We're inside the witch's labyrinth. Witches use
them to hide inside and draw in humans to prey upon. The witch will be in the
center."
"Which way is that?" I asked.
"There's no way to tell," said Kyubey. "Each labyrinth is unique, so the only
way to find the witch is to explore. As a general rule, though, labyrinths most
resemble the place in the normal world where they form at the farthest edges.
The center, where the witch lives, is usually nothing like the part of the
normal world you entered from."
"Follow the weirdness," said Sloth nodding. "Got it."
At that moment, a number of incredibly strange creatures emerged from doorways
set at landings on the fire escapes. They resembled six foot tall balls of
cotton with thick, black mustaches. Butterfly wings were attached to small
stems that extended down from their bodies. They way they moved was unsettling.
It felt like my eyes were playing tricks on me. They seemed to jerk from one
position to the next in short jumps like bad stop motion.
"What are those?" asked Sloth aloud.
"Familiars," replied Kyubey in our minds. "They serve the witch."
The familiars quickly surrounded our party. Then each one produced a tendril,
ending in an oversized pair of metal scissors. Lashing out, two of the
familiars attacked, closing the metal sheers around my and Sloth's bodies. The
metal broke as they closed. The grey tone of the Ultimate Shield was visible
through the resulting tears in the fabric of our clothing.
"I'd say that was a deliberate, unprovoked attempt on our lives," I said to
Sloth, a smirk on my lips.
"I would agree, Greed," replied Sloth, returning my smirk with one of her own.
"Shall we respond in kind?"
The grey discoloration of our skin spread to areas of our bodies not covered by
clothing as our bodies were encased in diamond hard armor. I brought my foot
down and transmuted a nest of spikes from the concrete sidewalk to impale a
group of three familiars. Their bodies broke apart into constituent particles
upon their deaths. Sloth clapped and gripped the ladder of one of the fire
escapes. The ladder came away, and she wrapped it around a pair of familiars.
Then, with a simple transmutation, she caused the ladder to squeeze until the
two familiars likewise broke apart.
Loki growled and glowed blue as he transformed from a brown dog into a massive,
green scaled, gold maned chimera. His transformation complete, Loki pounced on
one of the familiars, digging his fore claws and teeth into what passed for
flesh and raked his hind claws, gutting the creature until it too
disintegrated.
Loki's armored scales, strong enough to protect him from a tank shell, proved a
more than adequate defense against the huge metal sheers the familiars wielded.
Each familiar that tried to attack him became his next target. Sloth and I
managed to thin out their numbers with basic alchemy until they were all dead.
"The environment is made of normal matter, but the familiars aren't," observed
Sloth.
"That might only be true near the edge of the labyrinth," I pointed out. "The
floor and walls look a lot less normal through here."
I led our party toward a door that led to an area which looked to have been
carpeted in green crayon, which I'd seen thanks to the Mad Eye not being
hindered by opaque, solid matter. The arrays on the soles of my shoes,
originally designed to ensure I could grip on any surface, weren't providing
their traditional benefit, suggesting the floor was made of something other
than ordinary matter.
There wasn't anything behind some walls, and some doorways opened to a
different space than would be accessed by breaking through a wall and going
around them. It was easy to see why Kyubey called this place a labyrinth. Even
with the advantages of my magic eye, navigating this place wasn't easy.
Difficult as it was, we navigated the non-euclidean space until we emerged into
a large garden. I wasn't sure what I was looking at for a moment. More
familiars were here surrounding a larger creature. The creature resembled the
familiars, only it stood twenty feet tall, and instead of a cotton ball with a
mustache, this thing's head was a carpet of green with red splotches that I
finally realized aded up to a crude crayon drawing of a rose bush.
"That's the witch," said Kyubey.
Sloth stepped forward, withdrawing the Ultimate Shield from her head so she
could address the witch with human features. "Hello. We came here because we
wanted to talk to you. Your familiars attacked us and we had to defend
ourselves, but we came here to hear your side of the story. Kyubey says you're
a monster. If that isn't true, we don't have to fight."
I wasn't fully aware of how it happened, but a vine had wrapped itself around
one leg of each member of our party while Sloth was talking to the creature.
Kyubey slipped free, but the rest of us were jerked upward. Demonstrating a
degree of intelligence, the witch tried to bash Sloth and I into one another.
Our diamond hard skin wouldn't be harmed by the sheers the witch or her
familiars carried.
Our powers were just as much a mystery to the witch as its powers were to us.
When Sloth and I would have been struck together, Sloth used her Ultimate
Escape to allow us to pass harmlessly throug one another. Loki bit the vine
holding him aloft and twisted to land on one of the familiars. I used my shape
shifting powers to draw a flame alchemy array on the back of my hand and
snapped.
An explosion centered on the witch went off, and its head proved just as
susceptible to fire as a real rose bush. An inhuman shriek of what I assumed to
be pain accompanied the witch writhing in what looked like agony. As its body
vanished like its familiars had, the environment around us wavered and shifted.
Without warning, Sloth, Loki, Kyubey, and I were back in the alley where this
all started.
A few feet away, a peculiar object was falling. It was about the size of a golf
ball. Intricate black metalwork formed a spherical cage around a dark jewel.
From one end, a needle protruded, and on the opposite, a stylized butterfly
protruded. In contrast to everything I knew about weight distribution, the
object landed point first and remained upright.
"What's this?" asked Sloth as we all resumed our normal appearances.
"That is called a Grief Seed," explained Kyubey. "It's like a witch's egg. When
you defeat a witch, it might drop a Grief Seed. It isn't dangerous. In fact, it
will be very useful to you after you make a contract and become a magical
girl."
Sloth picked up the object and examined it. "Useful how?"
"Well, do you remember how I told you a Soul Gen is the source of a magical
girl's powers? Using magic causes your Soul Gem to darken. A Grief Seed lets
you draw off the taint and allows your Soul Gen to shine again."
"I see," said Sloth, pocketing the Grief Seed. "You've given me a lot to think
about. Can I sleep on it before giving you my answer?"
"Of course," said Kyubey, cheerfully. "It's against the rules for me to force
you, no matter how much I might want to."
"You'll have your answer in the morning," said Sloth. "We'll meet you back
here."
                                     * * *
Back at the hotel, we closed the door and Sloth crossed the room, doing a
little twirl as she turned to face me. She was beaming when she said, "This is
why the Gate brought us here."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"It sends us where we want to go," said Sloth. "When that nuclear scientist
wanted to go to a world without alchemy, he went there. When Envy wanted to
chase after Hohenheim, that worked too. We wanted to explore someplace
interesting where our powers worked and we ended up in the Ministry of Magic."
"And here?" I asked, not because I didn't suspect her answer.
"Any miracle, no matter how impossible," repeated Sloth. "I can finally do what
we couldn't do with the Resurrection Stone. I can wipe my slate clean and bring
back all those people I killed."
"Is that worth staying here and fighting witches to you?" I asked.
"If anything, that makes it better," said Sloth. "I get to spend time saving
people from monsters and making a real, positive difference."
"It's only one wish," I said. "If you're serious about this, think carefully
about what you want to ask for."
"I know," she said, looking at the Grief Seed contemplatively. "That's part of
why I asked to sleep on it. My first thought was just to wish everyone I've
killed back to life. Then I thought, maybe it would be better to wish back
everyone my father was responsible for, since that would cover everyone I
killed under his orders and a lot of other people besides."
"Maybe you should wish for the power to bring people back to life," I
suggested.
"Or maybe we could get more broad," said Sloth. "Wish for the power to restore
people to perfect physical and mental health, regardless of their condition,
whether they're living or dead."
"Ooh, nice one," I said. "That'd let you heal Neville's parents too. Maybe add
something about not needing a body, since there won't be any remains from
people that were made into red stones."
"Greed," Sloth said, pausing, "do you think doing this is the right thing?"
"I think you shouldn't feel obligated to contract," I said. "You aren't
responsible for those deaths. But if you're sure this is something you want to
do, I'll support your decision."
"Thanks, Greed," replied Sloth.
"I have to admit, I'm a little jealous," I said. "You're going to get new
powers and I don't even get the option."
The rest of t he night was spent working our way through different wordings and
expansions of her basic wish, making sure we had all our bases covered. We
added a stipulation for people like Moody, so people who didn't want to come
back wouldn't have to. No point cruelly yanking people out of a pleasant
afterlife.
                                     * * *
We found Kyubey in the alley the next day waiting for us. Sloth explained her
wish to him.
"Can you do it?" she asked at length.
"Of course," said Kyubey. "Is this the wish that will make your Soul Gem
shine?"
Sloth took a deep breath and said, "Yes, this is my wish."
Kyubey extended the tentacles protruding out of his ears toward Sloth's chest,
and a brilliant light surrounded her. Sloth was levitated into the air and her
clothing vanished. The oroboros mark on her back vanished, leaving unblemished
skin. Finally, the light drew together, coalescing into a red crystal the size
of an egg. Gold wire flashed into existence and wrapped around the crystal
protectively, forming an intricate pattern. The gold form ed a flat bottom and
sculpted a flamel at the top.
Sloth landed on the ground, and the newly forged Soul Gem landed in front of
her. She looked up at it and reached out, delicately touching the crystal.
Looking down at her body, Sloth said, "I'm... I'm human."
"You're a magical girl," Kyubey corrected her.
I pulled a cloak out of my bag and draped it over Sloth. "How do you feel?" I
asked.
"I'm not a homunculus anymore," said Sloth. "I didn't expect this to effect
that."
"Is something wrong?" asked Kyubey.
"You didn't mention any changes to my body," Sloth said. "I can't shape shift
or pass through matter anymore. And I'll bet my regeneration is gone too."
Sloth clapped then touched the ground. Nothing happened. "And what did you do
to my soul?" she demanded.
"What do you mean?" asked Kyubey. "It's right there."
He'd indicated Sloth's Soul Gem. From the name, I should have guessed something
like this was involved.
"I relocated your soul into your Soul Gem as a safety measure," explained
Kyubey. "You've seen how dangerous witches can be. By moving your soul into a
smaller, more easily protected container, you'll be able to survive and
reccover from even the most severe injuries. As long as your Soul Gem is
intact, you can keep fighting even after losing every drop of blood by just
repairing your body with magic."
"You should have told us about that," I said.
"Why are humans so concerned about what kind of containers their souls are in?"
asked Kyubey.
"Hocrux," said sloth, looking at the gem in her hand. "Does this mean if my
Soul Gem is destroyed, my soul is too?"
"Yes," replied Kyubey. "That's why it's very important to protect it."
Sloth sighed. "You still should have told us, but what's done is done. How do I
use my powers?"
"Every magical girl is different," said Kyubey. "Magical girls have unique
abilities based on their wishes, but there are some commonalities. First off,
you need your Soul Gem to use magic. Unless you're transformed, you'll need to
be holding it when you use your powers."
"What do you mean, transformed?" asked Sloth.
"Well, the changes to your body mean you're a lot stronger, faster, and more
durable than a normal human," explained Kyubey. "You can use your Soul Gem to
summon a battle outfit that not only increases those abilities even farther,
but lets you use your magic more freely."
"Let me try that," said Sloth. "At least then I won't have to be naked for the
rest of this explanation."
Sloth stood up and held her Soul Gem out in front of her. Red light shone
brightly, and strings of red light wrapped themselves around her body. Flaring
for an instant, the red glow around her vanished, and revealed she had been
covered in a black catsuit. Light gathered around her neck, and a crimson cloak
with a black flamel drawn on the back sprouted on her body. She leaned her head
back and the hood fell away. The Soul Gem vanished and a crown of white flowers
grew around her head. Filling with red light, the petals fell away, revealing a
golden circlet with a large round gem on the front center that glowed just like
her Soul Gem had.
Sloth felt the material of her cloak, then dug around in her bag for her pocket
watch so she could look at herself in the mirror. As we were in an alley, I
clapped and touched a dumpster, then pulled a newly transmuted full length
mirror out of it.
"This looks pretty bad ass," said Sloth, looking herself over. "Is this my Soul
Gem in the crown?"
"Yes," confirmed Kyubey.
Sloth nodded, then hopped lightly on her toes for a moment before leaping to
the top of the five story building we were standing next to. She hopped back
down, her cape flowing around her and she landed lightly, bending her knees
slightly with the impact, with no sign of injury. She was smiling.
"Okay, it looks like I didn't get completely screwed over on the deal," said
Sloth. "I was hoping to just add these powers to the ones I already had, but I
can live with this. As long as this next part works."
Extending her palm forward and splaying her fingers out, red light gathered in
her palm. In a burst of red light, a little girl identical to Sloth appeared.
She looked around confused, blinking her big, blue eyes.
"Who awe you?" asked the newly resurrected Nina Tucker of the magical girl who
looked just like her.
"My name is Sloth," she said. "It's an honor to finally meet you, Nina."
"Look in the mirror!" I told Sloth, urgently. She did so and saw the gem on her
circlet had darkened immensely, to the point that only a few glimmers of
crimson were visible near the top, the rest of her gem drowned in inky black.
Sloth took out the Grief Seed, held it out to Kyubey and asked, "How do I use
this?"
"Just hold it up close to your Soul Gem," instructed Kyubey.
Doing so, the black substance that nearly filled her Soul Gem was drawn into
the Grief Seed, leaving her Soul Gem shining as brightly as ever.
"It looks like bringing back the dead uses up most of your power," I said. "You
should make sure you're topped off before you use that power."
Sloth nodded, then looked at Kyubey and asked, "Can I keep using this Grief
Seed?"
"There is a finite amount of corruption they can absorb," replied Kyubey. "I'd
say the one you've got is good for one more use."
"All I need for now," said Sloth. Then she revived Nina's mother.
"How did I get here?" asked the woman.
"She's magic!" exclaimed Nina, pointing at Sloth.
"Mrs. Tucker," said Sloth. "I know this will come as a surprise, but this is
your daughter Nina."
"Nina?" she asked uncertainly.
"Mommy!" exclaimed the girl, leaping into the woman's arms.
"Who are you?" asked Mrs. Tucker.
"I'm someone who thinks you both deserve a second chance at life," said Sloth.
"Greed,can you get them home?"
"I'm not going to just leave you alone here," I said.
"Show back up the same moment you left, then," said Sloth with a smirk. Then,
more seriously, "This isn't their world and I don't want them stranded here."
"It's okay. I'll take it from here," said a second me stepping into the alley
with his watch out. I nodded to him, gathered the newly revived close, clapped,
and guided them through the Gate.
Once we arrived back in Liore, and I used my time turner to return with them to
the same moment I left this world, I provided a brief explanation and suggested
they get on a train back to central or they could stay in Liore for a little
while and learn more about what had happened to them when Edward and Alphonse
Elric arrived back in town after their expedition looking for magical
creatures. I stayed only long enough to provide a brief explanation to Rose,
then entered the Gate again to help Sloth through her transition.
"They made it home safely," I said once my past self had left.
"I'm glad," said Sloth. She tapped the Grief Seed to her Soul Gem once again,
and the Grief Seed seemed to glow with the gathered darkness.
"Now it's dangerous," said Kyubey. "If it absorbs any more grief, the witch
will revive. Give it to me."
Sloth offered the object to Kyubey, who balanced it on his nose for a moment.
Then, a trap door opened up on his back. Apparently, the red, egg shaped
markings were a seam. He flipped the Grief Seed into the opening, then the trap
door on his back closed.
"What did you just do?" I asked.
"Disposal of filled Grief Seeds is one of my many duties," he replied.
"At this rate, I'll be working off my debt for a while," said Sloth. "Taking
out the serial killers and other people I don't want to revive, I'm going to
need about a dozen Grief Seeds to bring back the innocent people I killed.
"You started on two people who's deaths you had no part in," I said.
"You knew I wasn't going to leave them dead," she said. "Whether it happened at
the start or the end shouldn't matter, really."
"Just pointing out this isn't all about clearing your slate," I said with a
smile. "Since we're here for the long haul, we can't keep living out of hotel
rooms. What do you say we find a place to set up a lab?"
                                     * * *
A new underground lab was easy to transmute. Kyubey was left outside while
Sloth, Loki, and I climbed down. After I transmuted her a new set of clothes
out of some old Hogwarts robes, she ended her transformation and got dressed. I
set up the planters for the philosopher's flowers and set up the red water
feeder. We'd need to learn more before we could say how safe exposing Sloth to
red water was now.
Back on the surface, I stomped and the tunnel leading to the lab vanished.
Sloth was holding her egg shaped Soul Gem in one hand. Loki couldn't detect
Kyubey, but he loyally followed us as we conversed with the catlike creature
telepathically.
"A witch leaves behind a magical signature like a trail that your Soul Gem can
detect," explained Kyubey. "When it pulses, it's picked up a witch's trail."
It wasn't long before Sloth's Soul Gem picked up the trail, and we followed it
to a set of train tracks. A man dressed in a business suit was lying down on
the tracks. He didn't stir when a loud whistle blared from a train coming down
the tracks.
I hopped down, grabbed the man, and hopped out of hte way of the train, then
laid him down for the others to examine. Kyubey pointed out a faintly
luminescent mark on his neck that Sloth could see, but my normal eye couldn't
detect. Kyubey called the mark a witch's kiss, and explained they formed when a
person has fallen under a witch's power. Effected humans are then compelled to
kill themselves or someone else.
Sloth held her Soul Gem in the palm of her hand and it glowed red for an
instant. The red light burned away the witch's kiss and revived the man.
"What happened?" asked the man. "I-I laid down on the tracks. Why did do that?
IF you hadn't come along..."
"It's all right," said Sloth. "You should go home."
When the man left, Sloth held up her Soul Gem again and said, "This way." She
led us a short distance until a black and white disk of light appeared in
midair. We stepped into the labyrinth.
Once inside, Sloth transformed into her magical girl battle outfit, I donned
the Ultimate Shield, and Loki transformed into his chimera form. The
labyrinth's entrance was a set of crisscrossing train tracks leading off in
different directions. Looking off into the distance, along one of the tracks,
the tracks gave way to black and white checkered tiles. That was the direction
the witch would be in, so we headed that way.
"You should summon your weapon," suggested Kyubey. "There's no way of knowing
when the familiars will decide to attack."
Sloth held out her hand, and in a flash of red light, she was holding an
object. She stared at it incredulously.
"A yo-yo?" she asked. "Did I do something wrong?"
Before Kyubey could answer, a snakelike creature made of shadow lashed out from
a hidden position, camouflaged against one of the black tiles. Sloth threw the
red yo-yo at the creature, and the impact crushed its skull, causing the
creature to disintegrate.
Flicking her wrist, Sloth returned the yo-yo to her hand and said, "I guess I
didn't do anything wrong."
"Was that a familiar?" I asked.
"That's right," said Kyubey. "I'd suggest staying on the white tiles so
there'll be some warning if more strike."
As we progressed, the white tiles became smaller and the contrast in the
environment grew stronger. Soon, the ground was completely black, the sky
completely white, and our own bodies dark enough to blend in with the ground.
Only at that point did the familiars risk attacking again. A dozen trickles of
red blood broke up the visual monotony and were the only way of seeing where
the familiars had attacked Loki and Sloth.
Not overly reliant on his sense of sight, Loki crushed a familiar in his
powerful jaws and brought a heavy clawed paw down on a second. Sloth threw her
yo-yo half a dozen times, killing a like number of familiars who'd bit into her
legs. The odd lighting conditions aside, it was clear that nothing more than
superficial damage had been done.
To address the possibility of more familiars lying in wait, I snapped my
fingers and employed flame alchemy to firebomb the area except that immediately
surrounding our party. The alchemically induced flames shone stark white in
this area, and we could see dozens of familiars along our path obliterated
before the flames died and we moved on.
A perfectly black, humanoid figure was kneeling ahead. As we approached, black
spines protruded from its back and extended at us fast as if they'd been shot
from a gun. I was thrown backward as the sharpened points struck the Ultimate
Shield. Sloth and Loki were impaled in a dozen places each. A pained yelp came
from Loki.
Sloth gave a grunt of pain and threw her yo-yo at what I now suspected was the
main body of the witch. I drew my wand and extended a blade from the end. The
usually blue alchemic light shone stark white here, and I used it to cut the
vine like tentacles that impaled Loki.
More fines impaled themselves into Sloth's body, but she just reeled her weapon
back in and kept striking. "Get Loki healed, Greed," grunted Sloth through the
pain of her own injuries. "I've got this witch right where I want her."
As I banished my blade and pointed my wand at Loki to close his wounds, Sloth
swung her yo-yo in a wide arc over her head and wrapped the string around the
witch's neck. Gripping with both hands, she pulled and the head was severed.
That didn't kill the witch, though. Instead, a dozen more fines sprouted from
the neck and shot through Sloth's body. More vines lashed out toward me and
Loki, and I had to shield him with my body.
Once Loki was healed, I ordered him to stay back out of range. Then I reignited
the blade on my wand and leapt at the witch. I severed the vines impaling Sloth
and caught her as she fell. Rings of crimson light appeared over the wounds and
healthy flesh vas visible for an instant before disappearing into the darkness
of this place.
"Thanks for the assist," said Sloth, getting back to her feet. "If you can keep
those vines off me for a bit, I think I can finish this."
"I think I can manage that," I said, then stood in front of her, my blade held
in a defensive pose. As vines lashed out at us, I parried them, severing each
one cleanly.
Sloth threw her yo-yo up in the air, once, twice, then shot it down with enough
force that it was spinning like a car tire peeling out. Rather than slow, the
rotation increased in speed and she began walking it forward. Chunks of the
witch started flying in every direction on contact with the rapidly spinning
weapon. Shrieks of pain from the witch accompanied renewed vigor in its
attempts to kill us, but my defense was up to the task.
Finally, the remains of the witch's body were still, the labyrinth dissolved
around us, and a Grief Seed fell to the ground. Now no longer subject to the
unnatural lighting conditions, I could more readily assess the damage. None of
the vines had actually penetrated Loki's scales. The attacks had all slipped
between them. His carbon hardened bones had redirected the impaling vines away
from anything vital, and the repairs I did during the battle were basically all
he needed.
Sloth's body was uninjured, but the multiple holes in her bodysuit showed
exactly where she'd been run through. Her hear, lungs, liver, intestines, and
stomach had all been penetrated, some of them multiple times. A lot of blood
had run down her chin from choking and vomiting it up during the battle.
"Well, it looks like I do have regeneration still," said Sloth.
"Because your wish was for the power to heal, your own body heals much faster
and more efficiently than other magical girls," said Kyubey.
Looking over her shredded outfit, Sloth asked, "Is there some way to fix this?"
"It gets created new every time you transform," explained Kyubey.
"I see," said Sloth, nodding. Then she ended the transformation. The damaged
scraps of cloth disappeared and were replaced by the shorts, sandals, and t-
shirt she'd been wearing earlier. "Bonus. Apparently the stuff I was wearing
stays safe while I'm transformed."
She eyed her Soul Gem. There was some corruption visible, but not enough to dim
it significantly. The level of magic she used in that fight wouldn't use up her
magic if she did it twice a day for a week.
"Can I make a request?" I asked. "Can we save up Grief Seeds until you've got
enough to bring back all the people you want in one batch? I'd rather not make
a fresh trip every time you revive someone."
"That seems reasonable," said Sloth. "I think we should call it quits on witch
hunting for the day. What do you say we get something to eat and talk some
more?"
"I'm okay with that," I said. "Are you hungry?"
"No," admitted Sloth. "Will I get hungry?"
"Your body's processes are being sustained by your magic now," said Kyubey.
"You can eat if you want to, but it's not really necessary."
"How about sleep?" asked Sloth as we walked down the street looking for a
restaurant.
"The same," said Kyubey. "It's a luxury, not a necessity for magical girls."
"Will I age?" asked Sloth.
"That's a very interesting question," said Kyubey. "You see, generally magical
girl candidates are human females in their second stage of growth. Your
apparent age is well below the normal, but your behavior doesn't seem to match
your apparent age. How old were you when you made your contract?"
"That's a complicated question," said Sloth. "I was an artificial human created
to replace the little girl you saw me bring back to life. I have her memories.
I spent a couple of years as a brainwashed slave before Greed set me free.
After that, it was a couple years working on that rescue mission, then seven
years at Hogwarts with a little bit of time travel thrown in."
"That would explain the anomaly," said Kyubey, cheerfully as we sat down at an
outdoor noodle shop. "The selection process is based on emotional age rather
than physical development."
"Why teenagers?" I asked.
"We've found magical potential is at its highest in girls of about that age as
a general rule. In answer to your original question, no. Your body won't
continue to age, though if you wanted, you could use your magic to make
whatever changes you want to it."
One advantage of communicating telepathically was we didn't need to stop
talking as we slurped our noodles. "I get the feeling there are a lot of powers
I haven't tapped yet," thought Sloth.
"It'll come with time and experience," said Kyubey. "You're already doing very
well. Incidentally, you don't need to keep your Soul Gem out like that. It can
turn into a ring for convenience."
Holding up her Soul Gem, the gold wrapped crystal glowed and shrunk down into a
small silver ring around her middle finger with a tiny inlaid red gem. I
noticed that the fingernail of that finger had a crimson flamel symbol
seemingly painted in the middle of it. Sloth didn't seem surprised as she
admired the ring, suggesting it'd been like that since becoming a magical girl.
I just hadn't noticed until now.
"None of this really looks like the magic we learned in school," I said as we
left the noodle stand to head back to the lab.
"It isn't," confirmed Sloth. "Just like with witches, it looks like a different
thing with the same name."
"Is this other kind of magic you studied what you use to fight with?" asked
Kyubey.
"No," I said. "Neither one of us could do any kind of magic before the
contract. I use alchemy."
"I wasn't aware humans had abilities like that," admitted Kyubey. "Where
exactly do you come from?"
"A parallel universe," explained Sloth. "Remember when Greed took the people I
resurrected through that portal? That's where he was bringing them."
"Fascinating," said Kyubey. "The only way we've previously been able to observe
alternate timelines is when a magical girl makes a wish to alter the past. And
even then, it's usually only an indirect observation."
"It took a lot of practice learning to travel between worlds safely," I said.
"If I weren't immortal, I never would've survived the learning process."
"Okay, Kyubey," said Sloth. "We're going to head down into the lab for the
night. We'll meet you back up here for a fresh witch hunt in the morning."
I took Sloth's hand and Loki's collar and used the transmutation circle
tattooed on the back of my shoulder to pass us through the solid matter of the
street and enter the sealed underground lab.
                                     * * *
Author's comments:
Experience in combat, tools from other worlds, and abilities foreign to this
world, our heroes are more prepared to face the life of a magical girl than
most. Whether that is going to be enough is another question altogether.
***** Romantic Interlude 27 *****
The Iron Sole Alchemist and Magical Girl Sloth (Chapter 2) Romantic Interlude
27
by Howlin
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or
characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation.
This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)
                                     * * *
***WARNING***
This chapter contains sexually explicit material involving young children. You
can skip this chapter and still understand the story. If you do not want to
read about this, go directly to chapter 3.
***WARNING***
                                     * * *
"It's going to take some getting used to," said Sloth as we emerged in the
living room of the lab, "not being the one to get us in and out."
"I can't imagine," I said. "It's got to be like that time I lost my soul."
"Speaking of which, I'm going to want some red stone powered gear for the next
fight. Getting used to my new powers is important, but having a backup weapon I
know how to use would be nice."
"You might also want to think about potions," I suggested. "It isn't a sure
thing, but most potions don't strictly require the user to be an ordinary
human. If they still work on you, they'd be a big help."
"Sounds good," said Sloth. "Those witches won't know what hit them."
"So," I said, "I know your body's gone through some changes and you're still
getting used to it. How's your libido?"
Sloth smiled and said, "Wandering around all day with that eye in, I figured
that's where your mind would go."
"I only used it to peek through your clothes once or twice," I said. "Although,
even if I hadn't, that costume from after the fight would've put my mind right
back there."
"I don't know what all changes Kyubey made," admitted Sloth. "Gross anatomy
seems the same, but getting stabbed by those vines hurt way less than it should
have. I haven't noticed any of my other senses acting strange, but there's
really only one way to find out."
Sloth pulled her t-shirt over her head and kicked off her sandals. I'd cleaned
up the blood from the fight with alchemy before we got noodles, so her
appearance was unmarred by the battle. I unbuttoned her shorts and slid them
down, pausing to lick her newly exposed labia.
"So far, so good," said Sloth, stepping out of her shorts and leading me into
the bedroom. "Can we make sure I can still orgasm from oral?"
"Unless I've been doing something very wrong for years, pain shouldn't be
involved at all," I said, closing the door behind us.
"Not with oral, no. That's why I want to start checking there. We'll check
vaginal next if this works."
"It seems to me, this is a set of experiments we're going to need to repeat a
great deal before we can really trust our results," I said with a wry grin.
"Then let's get started with trial number one," said Sloth, lying back on the
bed and spreading her legs.
As I groped her tiny body, I couldn't detect a change. Running my tongue
between her labia and tasting her juices likewise gave me the familiar flavor
of my wife and lover. Sloth shifted and squirmed in familiar ways when I teased
at her clit with my tongue. It looked like there was no loss of sensation
there.
Moans of pleasure came from Sloth as I probed inside her vagina with my tongue
and ran both hands from her knees, along her thighs to grope her butt, and back
again. Her orgasm came, and I swallowed the fluids that squirted into my mouth.
Continuing to lick and probe and tease, I kept her climax going for a bit
longer, but she finished in a human time frame.
"I didn't... I didn't think I'd be able to draw out my orgasm," said Sloth as
she lay trembling and breathing heavily. "Part of the price I paid for my
wish."
"The sex wasn't exactly bad when we managed to steal a few minutes of privacy
in the Nazi world," I said, licking my lips, "and we've got all sorts of
options we never had then."
"Does it bother you?" asked Sloth. "Me being more limited like this?"
"Does it bother me that I can completely overwhelm you sexually and leave you
quivering and panting?" I asked. "No. Not at all. If I couldn't pleasure you
anymore, that would bother me, but even if you can't come up with all new ways
to enhance our sex life with your new powers, which I don't buy for a second,
I'm still pretty happy. Let me know when you're ready for my penis."
I felt up Sloth's flat chest and ran a hand along her back, where her oroboros
mark used to be. Remembering the change to her body, I took her hand and sucked
on her fingers. She didn't have any sensation from her Soul Gem ring directly,
but the intimacy of the act was understood and elicited an appreciative groan.
In response, Sloth gently kissed the oroboros mark in the center of my bare
chest. The fingers of her free hand began to slowly stroke my erect penis.
Sloth's breathing had steadied, and she was no longer trembling.
"I want you inside me," murmured Sloth between kisses. "Whether I get off or
not, I want you to cum inside me."
"You've gotten to be so much more generous a lover over the years," I told her.
Then I laid Sloth down on her back and positioned the tip of my penis. When I
pressed into her, there was something different in her response.
"It feels different," said Sloth as she shifted her hips to accommodate me.
"Not bad, exactly, but not what I'm used to. Can you try and be a little
rougher?"
"I can grow barbs if that's what you want," I teased.
"Ew," replied Sloth. "I like your penis the way it is. Just go a little harder
and a little faster is all."
It took some experimentation, but she finally had her orgasm as I was pounding
her hard enough to propel her whole body an inch or so with each thrust. I
stopped holding back my own climax and came with her, shooting semen into her
at high pressure with each thrust. As before, she fell limp in a human time
scale. I kept going until I'd cum enough to start to feel back pressure in her
tiny, tight vagina.
"That was different," I said as I laid at her side once we'd separated. "We're
definitely going to have to have a lot of sex before we'll have a good handle
on the situation."
Sloth smiled at me with slightly glazed eyes and said, "We have a duty to
science."
                                     * * *
Author's comments:
Becoming a magical girl changes a lot of things. Learning all of them is an
ongoing process.
***** The Seat of Consciousness *****
The Iron Sole Alchemist and Magical Girl Sloth (Chapter 3) The Seat of
Consciousness
by Howlin
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or
characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation.
This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)
                                     * * *
The next day, we found Kyubey waiting for us as we emerged from our lab. Sloth
converted her Soul Gem from ring to orb form and we set out. Rather than follow
Kyubey's original search pattern, Sloth led us to the shopping district.
"I need to get some new clothes," said Sloth as we arrived. "I figured I'd keep
an eye out for a trail on the way, but I'd rather not be stuck with just one
outfit now that I can't just make my clothes change at will anymore."
After gathering a large pile of clothes, Sloth headed into the changing room to
try them on. While I waited outside with Kyubey, I silently thought a question
to him.
"Sloth told me her sense of pain has been numbed. The injuries she took in that
last fight didn't hurt as much as they should. Is that normal?"
"Of course," said Kyubey. "Pain can be incapacitating in combat, and you could
easily end up killed if you're too focused on how much the last attack hurt to
defend against the next one."
"So this is a deliberate feature?" I verified.
"Since the seat of a magical girl's consciousness is inside her Soul Gem, all
of her sensory inputs can be throttled. With a little practice, she can adjust
that throttling at will. We set the default level of pain throttling lower than
it is for a normal human. If she wants, she can turn off the pain entirely in
battle, but reaction time suffers in that state, so I don't recommend it."
"That's good to know," said Sloth, stepping out of the dressing room in a blue,
pleated skirt, short sleeved, white, button up blouse and knee socks. "I was
worried it might mean the connection to my body was breaking down."
"You heard that?" I asked.
"While there is a range limit, my telepathy isn't limited to being in the same
room." explained Kyubey.
Sloth modeled a dozen more new outfits before we left the store, carrying
several large bags. On the way back to the lab to drop off the new clothing,
Sloth's Soul Gem picked up a trace of residual magic. We immediately changed
course to follow the trail, stuffing the shopping bags into my shoulder bag
that was bigger on the inside as soon as we were out of sight of the public.
The trail led us to an apartment block. I could make out a smell of improperly
ventilated chemistry going on. Sloth leapt up to a third story landing on the
fire escape and climbed in through an open window. I whistled to Loki who
hopped up in my arms and I leapt to the landing after Sloth.
Sloth was standing over a man and woman, both dirty and unkempt, lying
unconscious next to a card table and pair of folding chairs. Both were
illuminated by the crimson glow of Sloth's Soul Gem. Quickly inventorying the
collection of medicines and cleaning products on the counter next to a burnt
saucepan on the stove, I concluded they'd been inexpertly trying to produce
drugs.
"I think they overdosed," said Sloth. "I cleared the kiss off them and healed
them both. If we'd gotten here much later..."
Sloth's Soul Gem was at about two thirds its maximum brightness. She turned
slowly on the spot, holding out her Soul Gem like a compass, then opened the
bathroom door. I turned off the stove and followed sloth into the glowing disk
of light just inside the door.
The area we entered into was like the bathroom would have looked, but oddly
stretched out, and with no ceiling, only a vast, white expanse. It would have
been hard to tell the difference between that uniform, white expanse and a
ceiling without my magic eye. As we were getting our bearings, a black snake,
like the familiars of the last witch darted out of the bathtub.
Unhindered by the odd light conditions in that labyrinth, we had plenty of time
to react, with Loki transforming in a flash of light and biting it in two. The
area wavered as the creature dissolved, leaving the three of us back in the
real bathroom. Loki reverted back into a brown dog.
"I don't see a Grief Seed," said Sloth, looking around.
"That's because the barrier was created by a familiar, not a witch," said
Kyubey, standing just outside the bathroom door.
"Barrier?" I asked.
"A more generic term for the pocket dimension witches and familiars use to hide
in," clarified Kyubey. "Familiars are much less powerful, and the barriers they
create are much simpler than the labyrinth of a witch."
"You've got a bad habit of waiting until the last minute to tell us things,
Kyubey," I said. "Do familiars often go on missions away from their witch?"
"It isn't really a mission," said Kyubey. "Sometimes a familiar slips a witch's
control or gets separated by some other means. They form their own barriers and
attack humans. Once it successfully kills enough humans, four or five usually
does it, the familiar matures into a copy of the witch that created it."
"So, when you say they've been breading out of control, this is what you were
talking about," said Sloth. "At least one familiars are easy to take out.
Should make exterminating this area a little easier at least."
"We should go before the couple wakes up," I suggested.
Heading out, we decided to resume our patrol in earnest rather than continue
back to the lab. Sloth set a goal of eliminating one witch a day and any
familiars we came across in the hopes of thinning out the creatures in the area
                                     * * *
After an hour of patrolling, Sloth picked up a trail. We followed it to a
warehouse and entered the barrier. Sloth, Loki, and I all transformed once
inside the labyrinth. The familiars that surrounded us shortly upon entering
were the same mustached cotton balls with butterfly wings from our first
labyrinth.
"Greed, duck!" ordered Sloth.
I dropped prone. She summoned her yo-yo and swung it over her head ina wide
arc. An aura of red light surrounded the yo-yo, streaking a comet-like tail
behind it. It shot through the heads of the familiars forming a circle around
us, and the familiars disintegrated.
"That's a nice trick," I said, getting to my feet.
"Only works when they're kind enough to line up like that," said Sloth,
blushing slightly. "Let's go see what we can do about the witch."
"This way," I said, directing us through the distorted space and alien
landscapes until we emerged into a garden room with an identical rose bush
headed witch to the first one we defeated.
Keeping an eye on our feet after what happened last time we fought this witch,
I noticed a number of tiny familiars I'd missed the first time. Their heads
were green and bell shaped, and they were smaller than the palm of my hand.
Sloth didn't wait to see where the trap was coming from. Instead, she charged
straight at the witch, her cape flapping behind her and a yo-yo in each hand.
The witch lanced out a pair of metal sheers in Sloth's direction. Sloth threw a
yo-yo at it, which knocked the attack off course. She ducked under the vine and
kept running. A second pair of sheers came in at her, and she took a flying
leap, striking the sheers with her second yo-yo when the witch tried to bring
it up.
The smaller familiars lined up at my and Loki's feet, then melted into a vine
that grabbed our legs. That was what I'd been waiting for, the answer to what
grabbed us last time. That question answered, I drew my wand, extended the blue
energy blade from its tip, then cut myself and Loki free before the vine could
lift us off our feet.
Fluttering down from above the witch, Sloth had abandoned her yo-yos in favor
of drawing a hilt engraved with alchemic designs. At the flick of a switch, a
red blade of light extended from it, which Sloth used to bisect the witch
straight down the middle.
Sloth landed lightly, extinguishing her blade and allowing her cloak to close
around her. She tipped her head back to let the hood fall from her head as the
two halves of the witch disintegrated. The labyrinth wavered and the barrier
collapsed. I waved my wand in the direction of the falling Grief Seed, and it
glowed briefly with a blue aura before flying to my hand.
Sloth, Loki, and I transformed back into our normal forms as I put the Grief
Seed in my shoulder bag. A quick check of Sloth's Soul Gen indicated she was
still a little more than half full after the magic she'd used in the battle.
"You know, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this," said Sloth, smiling.
"So, who wants lunch?"
                                     * * *
Our party sat down in a booth at a fast food restaurant. It was a style of
cooking neither Sloth nor I had tried yet. Kyubey happily ate fries offered
from Sloth's plate while the three of us who were visible to normal humans ate
hamburgers. In Loki's case, we didn't bother with the bun.
"So, Kyubey," asked Sloth telepathically while we ate, "how long have you been
doing this? Granting girls wishes and helping them fight witches."
"Let me see if I can put it in terms that will make sense," replied Kyubey.
"When the humans of this world were still living in caves, I was there to offer
a contract."
"And you've stuck with it all this time," I marveled. "It's good to know
immortality doesn't necessarily lead to callousness or cruelty."
"All that experience with witches certainly explains how you keep avoiding
getting hurt in the labyrinths we've been in," noted Sloth, feeding him another
fry.
"What did you do before you started offering contracts to magical girls?" I
asked.
"It wasn't very exciting," said Kyubey. "I'm much more interested in what you
did before coming to this world."
"Well, Sloth's given you the quick version of her story," I replied, taking a
bite out of my burger. "We've been together for a long time now, exploring
worlds and fighting evil. Before we teamed up, I was in the military, using my
knowledge of alchemy to help a displaced people called the Ishbalans rebuild.
Before that, I was in a cult led by a charlatan priest named Cornello."
"And in all the worlds you've traveled, this is the first one you've
encountered witches and magical girls?" asked Kyubey.
"We spent seven years in the last world, mostly inside a magical fortress,"
said Sloth. "Before I was old enough, I wouldn't be a candidate right?"
"That's true," said Kyubey.
"So, can we finally go drop off these clothes?" asked Sloth as she stood up
with her tray in hand.
"Sounds good to me," I said. We deposited our trash in the receptacles and
headed back for the lab. "I have some potions I want to brew anyway."
"And I have some thoughts on a new weapon," said Sloth.
                                     * * *
Back in the lab, I placed this new Grief Seed on a shelf next to the other one
we had. The similarities and differences were fascinating. Both had the same
overall shape, a black orb wrapped in an elaborate wire work cage about the
size of a golf ball and a needle-like protrusion on one side with a raised
symbol opposite it. The designs on the top were unique to each witch type, and
the exact design around the orb differed likewise.
Once we collected a few more Grief Seeds, there were some experiments I wanted
to run. There was still so much we didn't know about the situation. Even a
basic analysis of the physical properties could provide useful information.
Sloth settled in at a workstation with a handful of red stones, a notebook, and
some scrap metal. Curious as I was about what she was making, I resisted
peeking at her work. I wasn't going to deny her the pleasure of showing off her
creation at a time and place of her choosing.
Instead, I lit a few burners and placed cauldrons over them. The potions I
wanted to brew were of differing complexity, but none of them were experimental
and some of the same ingredients were used in more than one potion. If I was
right, we were closer to Sloth's goal than she realized, and I wanted to have
the potions ready when Sloth made her decision about whether to try my plan. I
made sure to brew and bottle enough of each potion for each person Sloth
intended to revive.
A couple hours later, when my potions were done, I found Sloth standing in the
middle of the living room trying tricks with her yo-yo. I saw that the string
extended back to the silver ring on her middle finger.
"It's pretty innocuous for a weapon, isn't it?" said Sloth when I walked over.
"A sword or a gun would draw attention, but I could walk down the street with
this out and no one would question it."
"Your powers have always been like that," I said. "Only people who really know
what you're capable of would ever guess you were the most dangerous person in
the room."
"Have you worked out how many red stones you'll need to match my strength when
transformed?" asked Sloth as she wrapped the string of her yo-yo around her
fingers and rocked the counterweight between the strings.
"That depends," I said. "Have I seen you go all out yet?"
Dropping her yo-yo and reeling it in, Sloth smiled and said, "Nope. I'm not
really even sure how strong I am like that."
"If you're curious, we can find an out of the way place, maybe one outside the
city, and put you through your paces. You know, see what you can really do."
"I think I'd like that," said Sloth. "It'd also be nice to know just how much
each of my powers drain my Soul Gem."
"I can design some tests," I said. "It shouldn't be hard to check your
performance and monitor your Soul Gem while we go."
"Do you think you can find a place tomorrow while I'm out hunting?"
"What?! That's a terrible idea," I said. "As much trouble as the witches are to
fight, you want to go in without backup?"
"You're cute when you're getting all protective," teased Sloth. "Don't worry. I
just don't see the point in dragging you along while I track down a witch. Once
I actually find one, I'll give you a call and we can go into the labyrinth
together like always."
"Okay, that does sound more reasonable," I said, placated. "Take Loki with you.
No point wasting your powers fighting off normal humans wandering alone in the
bad part of town."
"He's not exactly vicious looking," noted Sloth petting the dog and ruffling
his floppy ears.
"No, but he is a decent sized dog," I said. "People dumb enough to try and
start something with a lost little girl might think twice seeing a dog with
her."
Sloth smirked. "You just don't want to deal with so many places not allowing
dogs."
"There's no reason it can't be both," I said, defensively.
"He'll probably be happier wandering the streets with me anyway," said Sloth,
laughing.
"I should change out the red stone in his collar," I said. "He's been
transforming often enough lately that it'll probably burn out soon.
Taking a fresh red stone from my bag, I removed the dimly glowing one from
Loki's collar, popped it in my mouth, and ate it. There wasn't much energy left
in the stone, but no point being wasteful. I affixed the brightly glowing stone
in place on Loki's collar. Then, while I was on my knees next to him, I
playfully pushed him over and rubbed his belly.
"There's one more thing I wanted your help with," said Sloth, nervously. "Since
my body's a remote operated puppet now, I'm a little worried about how I'll
react to using a time turner. Will two instances of my Soul Gem interfere with
one another's signal? What happens when two copies of my body are here, but
just one Soul Gem? Will I just pick one? Will I bounce between randomly?"
"All good questions," I said, standing back up. "What do you need from me?"
"I need you to make sure the time loops get closed," said Sloth. "Okay, first a
relatively safe and simple test. I'll put down my Soul Gem and use my time
turner. That should send just my body back in time. We'll see what happens when
I've got two bodies."
A blur appeared in the room. Sloth's features resolved, with the chain of her
silver pocket watch wrapped around her waist. As soon as she was fully present,
she collapsed like a puppet who's strings had been cut. The Sloth already in
this time was still up and moving, seemingly unaffected by the arrival of her
second body. I went to examine the body.
"It's dead," I reported. "No heart beat. No respiration. That's strange. The
mark on the middle finger of your left hand is missing."
Looking at the red flamel painted on her fingernail, Sloth said, "Maybe it's
some kind of indicator to show what body my Soul Gem's using. I'm going to try
and switch bodies."
Sloth converted her Soul Gem from ring to egg form and held the crystal in the
palm of her hand toward the corpse. That not doing anything, she set her Soul
Gem on the floor and backed up until she was farther from it than the other
body was.
"Try touching it to her while I'm here," suggested Sloth.
I picked up Sloth's Soul Gem and touched it to the body. The future body
stirred and the present one collapsed. After verifying that she was now
breathing okay and her pulse had returned, Sloth checked her left hand and saw
the red flamel was painted on her middle finger.
"I'd call that a successful test," said Sloth, getting to her feet.
Loki whined at me in worry and confusion. I went to comfort him while Sloth
carried her Soul Gem back to her other body. Unlike when I did it, Sloth's
prospective didn't shift when she touched the Soul Gem to her other body. It
did shift when she let go of the Soul Gem with it still in contact with her
unconscious body.
"Okay," said Sloth. "I think I've got a handle on the process. We should
probably urn the rest of these tests in the bedroom. I'm making Loki nervous,
aren't I?"
"I think that'd be a good idea," I said.
With one last reassuring pat, I followed Sloth into the bedroom and closed the
door. She'd carried in her future body and laid it in repose on the bed.
"I want to see if this transfer process is limited to my own body," said Sloth.
"Can you transmute a corpse for me?"
"I think I can do that," I said with a smirk. The ingredients for a human body
were cheap and plentiful. I retrieved them from the other parts of the lab,
clapped, and touched the pile. Since I wasn't trying to bring the result to
life, the Gate didn't appear, and I got exactly what I was going for.
The body I created was the same size as Sloth's current body, and shared her
features. The distinguishing features were black hair instead of brown and
purple eyes instead of blue. Setting her Soul Gem in the hands of this new
body, Sloth's consciousness transferred just like it had between her other
bodies.
"It looks like I can use any body that isn't already occupied," said Sloth.
"That's good to know. It opens up options."
Sloth transferred back into her original body and set her Soul Gem on the night
stand. She wrapped the chain of her silver pocket watch around her waist,
turned the dial that manipulated the hidden time turner inside the watch, and
vanished. I scooped up her Soul Gem and placed it in the hands of the body
she'd sent back in time to revive her.
"Okay, one last test for the night," said Sloth. "We won't need the spare
corpse for this. You can deconstruct it and put the ingredients away."
I did so, then asked, "What's our next experiment?"
"I'm going to come back in time with my Soul Gem this time," said Sloth,
returning it to ring form and sliding it onto her middle finger. "We'll see the
results of the same Soul Gem being in two places at once."
As we spoke, a second Sloth flickered into view and said, "Don't worry. It
looks like our Soul Gems don't interfere with each other."
Looking at the ring on her own finger, the present Sloth said, "That's good. I
was hoping it would work like that."
"You're also about to find out your body can't just be hijacked while you're
using it," said the future Sloth.
Both put their Soul Gems down on a table and picked up one another's. Neither
of them fell unconscious when the other touched her Soul Gem. They switched
Soul Gems back and both Sloths converted their Soul Gems back to ring form.
"I think that's everything we can check here," said present Sloth. Her future
self nodded. "Tomorrow we'll see about the next batch of tests."
                                     * * *
Author's comments:
What it actually means to have your soul outside your body is a bit abstract.
Tests like these let them get a better intuitive grasp on the idea and what it
means practically.
***** Romantic Interlude 28 *****
The Iron Sole Alchemist and Magical Girl Sloth (Chapter 4) Romantic Interlude
28
by Howlin
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or
characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation.
This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)
                                     * * *
***WARNING***
This chapter contains sexually explicit material involving young children. You
can skip this chapter and still understand the story. If you do not want to
read about this, go directly to chapter 5.
***WARNING***
                                     * * *
I'd been mostly a passive observer in Sloth's exploration of her new nature as
a magical girl. I'd provided materials for her experiments and stayed close by
in case something went wrong, but the questions being explored were hers and
the experiments were her design. That didn't mean I wasn't fascinated by the
results and euphoric about getting to be involved in some basic science
exploring an entirely new phenomenon.
In fact, I was so caught up in the thrill of discovery that it was only when
Sloth declared the experiments over that it struck me I was in the bedroom area
of my lab with two instances of my wife. Time turner use now verified as safe
for her, we could resume using them in our sex life more generally, but there
was no reason I could see not to start now.
"So, you've got about an hour to kill before it's time to become her," I told
the present Sloth, pointing at the future one. "Shall we take advantage of the
overlap and have a three way?"
"You're not too freaked out about my body dying?" asked present Sloth.
I shrugged and said, "You're not rotting or anything. We already knew your body
was a remote controlled puppet. If anything, I'm less concerned about that than
I was last night."
"Especially now that I know I can throttle my senses," said future Sloth.
Turning to her past self, she added, "It really is easy once you know you can
do it."
"Good," said the present Sloth. "Means I can set my senses back to normal
outside combat."
"So, are we on?" I asked.
In response, both Sloths pulled off their t-shirts and dropped them in a pile
on the floor. One Sloth climbed onto my lap, put her arms around my neck and
kissed me. As we sucked on one another's tongues, the other Sloth came up
behind the one I was making out with and started groping her other self's flat
chest from behind while kissing the back of her neck.
I heard the sound of a zipper as the Sloth in the middle had her shorts
unzipped by the Sloth behind her. A pause came in the tongue work of the Sloth
I was kissing as her other self put the hand that wasn't groping her chest down
the front of her panties. Both girls let out a low purr of pleasure.
I clapped my hands behind both girls and grabbed the ass of the outermost
Sloth. Her shorts and panties unraveled and fell to the floor, where I tapped
my foot on the pile of fibers and caused them to reform into garments once
again. With one Sloth naked, I dismissed my clothes with a thought and lifted
the Sloth I had my hands on and set her over my erect penis.
"I'll keep jacking her off," said the outermost Sloth, leaning her cheek
against her other self's back. "Lower me down slowly, okay?"
Without breaking my kiss with the middle Sloth, I slowly lowered the outer
Sloth onto my erection. As distracted as we all were, it was a good thing we
were going slow. Otherwise it would have been much harder to keep us lined up.
The outer Sloth groaned in pleasure as my penis squeezed inside her tight,
hairless pussy.
The Sloth I was kissing let out a muffled yelp of pain. The girl masturbating
her had gotten distracted and grabbed her too hard. The outer Sloth murmured an
apology in her ear, kissed her neck, and we resumed our former activities.
With this treatment, it didn't take me long to start cumming. I didn't overdo
prolonging my orgasm. I kept spurting inside Sloth only until her own orgasm
came and went. Only then did I break my kiss with the middle Sloth.
The Sloth I'd filled with my cum dismounted and staggered slightly as she took
a step back from me and her other self. The Sloth I'd been kissing stepped away
from me next, grinning wide. She took her shorts the rest of the way off and
tossed them in the pile of clothes. Her panties were soaked enough that I
didn't need my magic eye to see through them.
"That was good," said the Sloth still wearing underwear. "What do you say we
swap places and do round two?"
"Sounds good to me," I said. "Just one thing. If I'm going to be making out
with you this time," I pointed to the nude Sloth, "it'd be nice if I could
taste her pussy juices in your mouth."
Both Sloths smiled, and the girl I'd indicated licked the fingers she'd been
using to masturbate her other self with. The Sloth with soaked panties took
them off and casually tossed them at me. I put them to my nose and took a good
whiff.
Now that she was naked, the Sloth I'd been penetrating got to her knees and
licked the vagina of the one I'd been making out with. The Sloth being licked
put her hands on the back of her other self's head and pressed her crotch
forward, but the Sloth licking her didn't bring her all the way to climax.
"I think that ought to do," said the Sloth that was getting to her feet licking
her lips.
Then she climbed on top of me. She didn't line up our lips at first, instead
encouraging me to kiss her nipples and run my tongue over her flat chest. To
add further encouragement, she took the other Sloth's panties from me and
rubbed them over parts of her chest I hadn't gotten to yet before tossing the
dirty underwear in the clothes pile.
Having had her pussy teased by her other self's tongue, the Sloth I hadn't
penetrated didn't wait for me to finish on her other self's chest and start
making out with her. Instead, she climbed right up onto my lap and grabbed my
penis with both hands. Impatient to be penetrated, that Sloth bent her knees
and forced my penis into her, reaching her maximum depth on my first thrust.
Once she had a penis inside her, that Sloth relaxed and slowed down her pace,
kissing the butt of the other Sloth as she rose and fell. I finished sucking on
the middle Sloth's nipples and guided her down so I could kiss her lips.
This was better than round one. As the Sloth I was penetrating gave her other
self a reach around, I got to taste her pussy on the tongue of the girl she was
masturbating and getting my cum on her fingers in the process. The Sloth with
my dick in her clearly thought so too, as she called out loudly as she reached
her orgasm.
The surging, squeezing contractions of Sloth's prepubescent vagina got me
cumming again, and I sucked hungrily on the other Sloth's tongue while I came.
I held my orgasm longer this time, finally allowing myself to finish a few
minutes after the contractions of Sloth's vagina finished and she was quivering
and spent.
Finally, the three of us separated, one Sloth rolling to the left, the other to
the right. We lay side by side, breathing heavy and turning our heads to grin
at one another for a few minutes before I clapped my hands and grabbed both
Sloths by the crotch. Blue alchemic light arced across their bodies,
deconstructing sexual fluids and generally cleaning them both up. Then I swung
my legs down and got up from the bed, cleaning the pile of laundry on the floor
with another simple clap transmutation.
"One of you has a time loop to seal," I said.
The appropriate Sloth got up and dressed before taking her silver pocket watch
out and turning a dial, vanishing into the past. I laid back down on the bed
next to the remaining Sloth.
"You came plenty," noted Sloth. "I am so glad none of this turned you off."
I smiled at her and said, "I'm already thinking about how we can use body swaps
to manage what we used to do with shape shifting."
She smiled back and said, "There's got to be a way I can use my Soul Gem's
ability to tune and modulate my senses to do more than just get my sense of
touch back to normal during sex."
"Sounds like we'll both have some interesting things to try out next time," I
said. "For now, do you want to curl up together and get some sleep?"
"I'll look forward to waking up in your arms tomorrow morning," replied Sloth,
nuzzling up to me.
                                     * * *
Author's comments:
Knowing that your partner still finds you attractive is an important aspect of
a sexual relationship.
***** Dark Revelations *****
The Iron Sole Alchemist and Magical Girl Sloth (Chapter 5) Dark Revelations
by Howlin
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or
characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation.
This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)
                                     * * *
Sloth and I parted ways the next morning. She took Loki and Kyubey to hunt
witches while I headed for the library. City maps and records were easy to
access, and I'd identified an out of the way place for us to test Sloth's magic
without risking bystanders. Once I had that done, I went back to the puzzle I'd
been working on before I met Kyubey. Why was the night sky so bright in this
universe?
Combining what I'd learned about astrophysics in previous universes with the
observations of astronomers here, the results didn't add up. A lot of cosmology
theories in this world suggested subtly different models of stellar evolution
from those accepted in other universes to account for it, but the more I went
over the data, the more I started to notice a pattern. Dividing the universe
into spherical shells centered on earth, all the stars in a given shell fit the
stellar formation models I'd brought with me. The trouble was, each shell
suggested a universe of a different age by those models. It wasn't a smooth
progression suggested by a different speed of light. It was more like, at
various times in the history of the universe, someone had turned back the clock
across the entire universe simultaneously.
I had no idea what could cause a phenomenon like that, and it was a little
terrifying to contemplate anything operating on that scale. A Philosopher's
Stone empowered by the lives of every human being on the planet couldn't
reverse one year of the sun's fusion. The god I used to worship, even if he had
actually existed, couldn't have done anything close to what was happening in
this world.
While I stared into space trying to get my head around the concept, Sloth's
call came in on the communication mirror. She'd found a new witch. I quickly
packed up my notes, set the books on a cart for reshelving, and headed out to
meet her.
Turning down an alley, I saw Sloth wearing the blue pleated skirt and white
button down top she'd picked out the other day. She was holding her red Soul
Gem with its decorative gold wire work out in the palm of her hand toward a
multicolored disk of light on the alley wall. My brown, floppy eared dog Loki
was at Sloth's side, staring at the spot on the wall Sloth was focused on,
though he couldn't see the barrier. Kyubey sat on top of a nearby dumpster.
"Your Soul Gem looks darker than it did this morning," I commented as I
approached.
"We had to take out half a dozen familiars before we found a witch," said
Sloth. "They weren't worth calling you in, but the magic use adds up, I guess.
Oh well, should be more than enough to take out this witch."
The four of us entered the barrier and immediately, I noticed something was
wrong. Usually, the entrance resembles the point in the real world you entered,
but apparently that was more a rule of thumb than an absolute rule. Our party
was in a poorly lit hallway who's floor seemed to be made of chocolate, and the
walls were tall piles of giant cookies and candies held upright by rows of
surgical scissors large enough to act as structural support beams.
"Does it get weirder than this?" asked Sloth dubiously.
"I don't know," I said. The electric blue false eye in my right socket darted
to and fro as I used its enchantments to look through the candies and cakes to
see anything that might indicate the direction of the witch. Instead, I caught
sight of a group of familiars headed our way.
A line of blue alchemic light ran up my body. As it passed, my skin turned dark
grey as the carbon in my body was converted to the diamond hard armor of the
Ultimate Shield. My right eyelid closed to protect my magic eye and my left eye
turned black and red from its carbon hardening. I lacked both lips and hair in
this form, and could easily be mistaken for a demon.
Sloth and Loki each followed my lead and transformed. Sloth's body was
enveloped in red light and she was instantly covered by her crimson cloak. She
threw her head back and opened her cloak, revealing her golden circlet with her
Soul Gem in the front, her black bodysuit, and a bright red yo-yo in each hand.
Loki's hackles rose, and blue light poured from beneath his fur. His collar,
inscribed with a transmutation circle and with a red stone affixed, shone
bright red light in response. The dog gained mass. Bright green scales covered
his body. His thin tail grew larger and thicker until it was the length of his
newly expanded body and heavy enough to crush bones when used as a bludgeon.
Loki's collar disappeared beneath a thick golden mane as the glow died out.
The familiars rounded the corner. Their bodies were almost perfectly spherical.
Large, purple elephant ears drooped down from the sides of their bodies. They
had long, pink rat tails. The creatures were bipeds, each standing a little
taller than me, but out massing Loki. Their large, awkward bodies and thin,
stick like legs gave the impression of slow, unwieldy creatures. Once the three
of them spotted us, we learned they were anything but.
These familiars had neither teeth nor claws, but as they rushed at us, their
enormous masses moving with a frankly impossible level of acceleration,
outdoing even Loki's pounces, and each familiar slammed into one of us like a
speeding truck. I was uninjured, but slammed backward into a cookie twice my
height, crumbling it. Loki was dazed and unbalanced from his hit, but nothing
was broken.
Sloth's left arm hung limp at her side, seemingly dislocated. A hit like that
should have shattered bones. Quantifying how much her durability increased when
transformed would have to be among the tests we ran after this fight. Her
ability to switch off her ability to feel pain would make that sort of testing
doable.
It was our turn. Sloth sued her one good arm to throw her yo-yo straight at the
familiar as it went to charge her again. Now able to anticipate its speed,
Sloth used it to her advantage, as the head on hit with her yo-yo did damage
appropriate to the combined speed of both and blasted all the way through the
familiar's body, causing it to disintegrate into black smoke before it reached
Sloth.
I drew my wand and extended my blue blade of alchemic light from its tip and
used it to slice my opponent in half. Loki pounced on his when it paused to
turn for another pass. Teeth and claws that could effortlessly sever human
limbs tore into the familiar which bled chocolate cream filling before
disintegrating like the others.
A ring of red light sprang from Sloth's injured shoulder and she flexed the
limb experimentally to be sure she was healed when the ring vanished an instant
later.
"We could be in trouble if we're searching the labyrinth randomly and have to
fight more of those things," said Sloth. "How are those directions coming,
Greed?"
"Not great," I admitted. "Following the weirdness just isn't going to work in
this labyrinth."
With no real options, we picked a direction and started walking down the hall.
A floating door led to a black void with a floor we couldn't tell was there
until I stepped on it. Stoppered glass bottles filled with unknown substances
were suspended in midair. I couldn't see any familiars in this area, but there
were a dozen more doors floating in various places in this area.
Most of the doors led into candy hallways like we'd just left, but one door led
to a bridge with red licorice railings illuminated by giant birthday candles
the size of street lamps. Hoping the difference suggested someplace closer to
the witch's lair, the four of us began crossing the bridge. Pills rained down
from above, but they proved harmless.
A door at the end of the bridge led into a room full of white and pink cakes
and gigantic hypodermic needles. There were two dozen familiars behind the
door, which I explained to Sloth.
"Sounds like a great chance to use this," said Sloth with a smirk as she held
up what looked like a large cigarette lighter with a modified flame alchemy
array on one side. Sloth brought the lighter to her lips and drank a bit of the
fluid inside. Then she put it to Kyubey's lips and had him do the same. I drank
when it was offered to me, gave some to Loki, and handed the lighter back to
Sloth.
Sloth opened the door and we stepped through. The familiars rushed us as a
group. Sloth clicked the lighter, and everything was on fire. The familiars
were incinerated almost instantly, but while the flames engulfed our bodies,
they burned neither our bodies nor our clothes.
"You keep a fireproofing potion in there so you can carpet bomb an area with
flame alchemy risk free," I said, impressed. "I presume there's a switch and a
red stone inside you trigger with the same mechanism you use to get a spark?"
"Right as usual, Greed," said Sloth as the flames burnt out and left us with
nothing but the smell of burnt sugar. "I probably should've brewed more potion,
though. If we meet more familiars, that trick won't be an option."
"It should be fine," said Kyubey. "I think we're getting close to the witch."
"I don't know how you can tell," I said, looking around. Other than the
blackened and burned area we were standing in, the landscape was pretty
uniform, with large pink and white cakes and gigantic needles as far as the eye
could see.
"Down here," said Kyubey, hopping into a crevasse between cakes.
Sloth, Loki, and I followed him, ending up in an area bordered by candies and
cakes with a number of small tables set up. The tables were small, but stood on
legs several stories high. One of the tables had a tea set on it and an equally
tall pair of chairs. A pink rag doll was in one of the chairs.
"Well, this is definitely different from the rest of the landscape," conceded
Sloth, "but where's the witch?"
"No sign of any more doors," I reported. "Also, this cake and candy is all
real. My shoes haven't had any trouble with it since we got into this
labyrinth."
As we looked around and talked, the rag doll opened its mouth and a creature
far too large to fit inside it came out. It had a long, black, worm like body,
huge eyes, a face apparently painted with white makeup, and a conical party hat
for a nose. Like a murderous jack in the box, the creature emerged from the
doll's mouth, opened a wide, sharp toothed maw of its own, and bit Sloth's head
off before any of us could react.
Sloth's Soul Gem was in her crown, and that was now inside the witch's mouth. I
sped at the witch, taking advantage of the fact that the ground was made of
regular matter to accelerate my already superhuman speed by transmuting the
ground with every step. I shattered two of the creature's giant teeth with a
punch and burst through the hole in its mouth.
The eyes on Sloth's head were still moving as I snatched up the head, tucked it
under my arm, and smashed through a couple teeth on the opposite side of its
mouth to escape. The witch reared back, roaring with pain. Loki had leapt into
its back in a hard to reach spot and was biting and clawing. Plopping Sloth's
severed head onto her decapitated body, I was relieved to see a bit of red
light and Sloth getting to her feet none the worse for wear.
"If you can hold it still, I can finish it off," I said.
"Right," said Sloth, summoning a yo-yo for each of her fingers.
All ten yo-yos launched at once as Sloth leaped into the air. An aura of red
light burned around each yo-yo and they started snaking independently of one
another and independent of their starting vector. Sloth landed on top of one of
hte tables. The strings wound around the witch and around the legs of the
tables. The thin legs of the tables shouldn't have been sturdy enough to hold
the witch, but a red glow covering the tables and yo-yo strings suggested Sloth
was reinforcing both with her magic.
Loki leapt off the witch at my signal, and I stomped my right foot. Processed
sugar is composed of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. Spikes made of ice and
diamond impaled the witch in a hundred places. Seeing that the battle was over,
Sloth picked up the tea cup that was on the table she was standing on and took
a drink as the labyrinth collapsed.
All three of us resumed our normal forms and I fetched the Grief Seed. The tea
cup didn't vanish when the labyrinth collapsed. Sloth finished drinking it and
swirled the dregs absentmindedly.
"I do not see what Headless Nick found appealing about being decapitated," said
Sloth. "Even with the pain turned off, that was disorienting and unpleasant.
How's my future looking?"
I took the offered teacup and looked at the dregs. I paled slightly at what I
saw. "Disaster," I said. "You are already entangled in an enemy's web, and it's
too late to escape."
"What?" asked Sloth. "Let me see that." Sloth took the cup back. Staring hard
at the pattern, she grew quiet and concerned.
"You both know that reading tea leaves is just a superstition right?" said
Kyubey, cocking his head. "The patterns in a teacup are random. The only order
to them is what your minds impose on them."
"Get out the foeglass, Greed," said Slolth, looking up from her tea cup.
I reached into my bag and pulled out a magic mirror. The spells laid on it
caused it to show the enemies of its owner. The closer and clearer an enemy
appeared in a foeglass, the closer the enemy was to you, both physically, and
in terms of readiness to do you harm. Kyubey's face stared out of the foelglass
as though pressed against it.
"It's not a cat and you shouldn't trust it," whispered Sloth, quoting the
offhanded prophecy our divination professor had made on our first day of class.
We'd thought that one referred to a different creature, and had been a
misinterpretation.
"What are you up to?" I demanded, igniting my alchemic blade and pointing it at
Kyubey.
"I'm confused," said Kyubey.
"You never told us the whole story," said Sloth. "If we hadn't been alchemists,
we wouldn't have noticed you'd done anything to my soul, and you never would
have told us. What else are you hiding?!"
"I'm not hiding anything," said Kyubey. "It's true, I haven't told you
everything I know, but that's just because there's so much I know that you
don't that it's just easier to wait for a specific question."
Keeping my blade pointed at him, I reached into my bag and pulled out a second
dark detector. I brandished this new object, which resembled an antenna in the
hand that didn't hold my glowing blue energy blade.
"This is called a secrecy sensor," I told Kyubey. "It vibrates in the presence
of lies, concealments, and deceptions. Deliberate omissions count."
"I'm invisible to everyone but magical girls and candidates," Kyubey reminded
me in the face of the vibrating device. "It's a passive effect I don't really
turn on and off, but I'd guess that counts as a concealment for your sensor."
"That's a good point," conceded Sloth. Then she rushed past me, grabbed Kyubey,
lifted him off his feet, and pinned him against a wall. "We do know potions
work on you. Greed, veritasyrum!"
I shut down my blade, replaced my wand and dark detectors in my bag, and
retrieved a labeled bottle containing a colorless, odorless liquid. With him
pinned, I shook three drops of the most potent truth drug ever made into
Kyubey's mouth.
"What are you planning for me?" asked Sloth.
"I'm going to harvest energy from you when you turn into a witch," replied
Kyubey cheerfully.
"When I-?" began Sloth, her eyes widening in horror.
"Once your Soul Gem darkens all the way, it'll turn into a Grief Seed, and
you'll become a witch," confirmed Kyubey. "This process releases a massive
amount of energy, which my kind use to reverse the effects of entropy."
"Wait," I said. "You're the reason the night sky's brighter than it should be?"
"That's right," said Kyubey. "My species discovered that the energy released by
emotions isn't bound by the laws of thermodynamics. The greatest energy release
occurs in the state change from hope to despair. We created Soul Gems and Grief
Seeds to harvest that energy."
"All the witches we've been fighting used to be magical girls," reasoned Sloth.
"Or the results of familiars maturing into duplicates of their original witch,"
replied Kyubey, showing no signs of distress. "It should have been obvious
familiars maturing into witches wasn't the only place they came from. If it
were, all witches would be exactly the same."
"Why me?" asked Sloth. "Everyone on earth has emotions. Why was I a candidate?"
"The details are a little complicated," said Kyubey. "Emotional potential is
only half of the equation for determining how powerful a magical girl will be,
and thus, how much energy we can collect. The other half is your karmic
destiny, or in simpler terms, how many other people your life will effect. A
queen usually has a greater karmic destiny than an ordinary schoolgirl, for
example."
"That can't account for energy on the scales you're talking about," I said.
"We don't really know how it's possible ourselves," said Kyubey, "but the
energy released from the transformation of even the weakest magical girl into a
witch adds years to the life of the universe. You should be happy you get the
chance to help so many people."
"If it's such an honor, why don't you do it?" demanded Sloth.
"In my species, emotions are considered a mental disorder," explained Kyubey.
"It's extremely rare for one of us to be usable in this process. That's why we
came to this world and contracted with humans. In exchange for one wish, we're
able to harvest the energy we need to keep the universe alive. It's a mutually
beneficial arrangement. You got your miracle, didn't you?"
"If that's your goal, why tell us about purifying Soul Gems using Grief Seeds?"
I asked. "Why have magical girls hunt witches if the whole point is to make
more witches?"
"The witches themselves are a byproduct of our activities, not the goal
itself," said Kyubey. "By hunting witches, magical girls clean up the waste
product and ensure the safety of ordinary humans. A world overrun by witches
would be useless to us."
"But you don't get your energy if I don't turn," said Sloth. "I've already got
three Grief Seeds. I can get as many as I need."
"In the long term, it is the fate of every magical girl to become a witch as
long as her Soul Gem doesn't break first," said Kyubey. "Plenty of magical
girls survive for years, but that isn't really a concern for us. In fact, it's
a good thing. The longer you survive and use your magic, the better."
"Why?" I asked, suspiciously.
"Magic is something that is impossible by definition," explained Kyubey. "Every
use of magic, whether to grant a wish or to accomplish anything else creates
distortions. The nature of these distortions is this. For every bit of hope you
bring as a magical girl, an equal level of despair will be sewn by your witch.
And the more powerful the witch, the more energy we can get."
"Does that mean every person I save with my powers means one person I'll kill
as a witch?" asked Sloth, horrified. "That the only way to come out ahead is to
bring back the people I want to save, then break my Soul Gem?"
"You're not doing that," I said, adamantly.
"I'm not going to go back to being a tool. A weapon," said Sloth. "And you
won't do this to anyone else ever again!"
Sloth crushed Kyubey's throat and dropped the corpse to the ground. Tears were
streaming down her cheeks.
"Here," I said. "Use the Grief Seed we just got."
"What am I actually doing?" asked Sloth as she touched the Grief Seed to her
Soul Gem and watched the darkness flow out, restoring her Soul Gem's brilliant
red glow. "Do you think she's still conscious in there? Am I increasing her
suffering by filling her Grief Seed back up?"
"I don't know," I admitted. "Come on. Let's go back to the lab, grab the rest
of our Grief Seeds, and head out to the place I found."
Loki put his head in Sloth's hand as she followed me mechanically. It was a lot
to process, and though Loki had no idea what she was upset about, that she was
upset was plain to see.
                                     * * *
"I lost my temper," said Sloth. "He needed to die, but maybe we should've
interrogated him more first."
"What's done is done," I said. "I don't see any point wasting magic
resurrecting him for more questions just now. We got enough information to go
on."
Sloth, Loki, and I were in an abandoned industrial area of the city. Closed
factories and empty warehouses were the only buildings nearby. All of them were
abandoned. I took out the potions I'd prepared.
"What are those for?" asked Sloth.
"The people you're going to bring back," I said. "These potions will put them
to sleep and shrink them down for safer, easier transport through the Gate."
"I thought you wanted to do them all in one batch," said Sloth. There was a bit
more life in her voice as she asked the question. "We don't have enough Grief
Seeds. I'll witch out before we finish."
"Not if I'm right about this," I said with an arrogant smirk that finally
elicited a smile from Sloth. "I want you to resurrect people and purify your
Soul Gem until we have a filled Grief Seed."
Sloth did as I instructed, reviving one of her former victims, which, as
before, nearly depleted her magic. She cleansed her Soul Gem with the Grief
Seed she'd used earlier while I gave the man she brought back to life the
potion. Now in an enchanted sleep and the size of my thumb, I put him in a
small box and put that box in my shoulder bag.
"This Grief Seed's full," said Sloth.
"No, it isn't," I said. "Bring back one more person and I'll show you my plan."
"Alright, Greed. I trust you."
After placing the second sleeping man into my bag, I took out a second Grief
Seed and said, "Kyubey said if it absorbs any more grief, the witch will
revive. Let it. Dump as much grief as you can into the Grief Seed and revive
the witch. Once it's back, you can top off with this Grief Seed."
"You'd better be going somewhere with this," said Sloth as she did as I asked.
Her Soul Gem didn't brighten much before the Grief Seed reached its limit and
reacted.
Black energy surged from the Grief Seed and we were pulled into a newly formed
labyrinth. I tossed Sloth the Grief Seed I was holding and she used it to top
off her magic. The three of us were in the center of the labyrinth we'd just
beaten, with its cake and candy architecture and its too tall tables and
chairs. As we continued to watch, the Grief Seed rose into the air and was
wrapped in black light, vanishing to be replaced by the pink rag doll we now
knew hid the witch's true form.
"Okay, are you ready to take this thing down in round two?" I asked.
Sighing, Sloth transformed then laid a web around the witch with her yo-yo
strings. When its monstrous worm form emerged from the plushie's mouth, it was
immediately ensnared. I stomped and impaled it with transmuted spikes again,
and the labyrinth dissolved. I caught the descending Grief Seed and held it out
to Sloth with a look of triumph on my face.
"It's empty again," I said. "The grief it absorbed was used up constructing the
labyrinth and recreating its body. An easy fight against a witch who's tricks
we already know every so often, and you'll never have to worry about draining
yourself completely and becoming a witch."
Sloth's arms were around my neck and tears of relief were soaking my shoulder.
I put my arms around her and sat down on the ground. She sobbed for a few
minutes before composing herself enough to speak.
"Thank you, Greed. I was so scared."
"Are you ready to finish bringing them back?" I asked.
Sloth nodded and we got to work. Three times each, we revived and defeated the
rosebush witch and the candy witch, resurrecting a dozen of Sloth's former
victims as we went. Then, something went wrong with my plan. The candy witch
was defeated again, but no Grief Seed appeared.
"What happened?" asked Sloth.
"Witches don't always drop Grief Seeds," explained Kyubey.
The two of us turned to look and there he was. Seated on top of a graffiti
covered bench, Kyubey didn't so much as have his white fur mussed.
"I killed you," said Sloth.
"You destroyed one of my bodies," acknowledged Kyubey. "I have many spares."
"You don't seem upset," I noted warily.
"I already told you, if we had the ability to get upset like that, we wouldn't
need humans. I would prefer if you didn't break any more. They can be replaced
quite easily, but it's wasteful."
"If you didn't want to get broken again, why did you come here?" asked Sloth, a
yo-yo materializing in her hand.
"A magical girl had a question about witches and Grief Seeds," replied Kyubey.
"I did explain answering those questions was one of my duties."
"Just answering them in misleading ways, leaving out information you know we'd
consider important," spat Sloth.
"I'll give you a chance to do something useful," I told Kyubey. "Why do witches
sometimes not drop Grief Seeds after a battle? What makes the difference?"
"Sometimes the attack that kills with witch destroys the Grief Seed," said
Kyubey.
"Of course," I said. "I should've thought of that. Next time we go in, I'll use
the Mad Eye and look inside the witch's body so we can avoid hitting the Grief
Seed."
"This is a clever idea," said Kyubey. "Most magical girls never get the idea of
using the same witch more than once. In terms of resource utilization, it's
very efficient."
"But you're not wasteful, are you, Kyubey?" said Sloth. "What do you do with
the filled Grief Seeds magical girls give you?"
"Sometimes a magical girl completely depopulates an area of witches," said
Kyubey. "When that happens, the magical girls involved would eventually use up
their magic and turn into witches themselves if we weren't able to re-seed the
area."
"You want magical girls to turn into witches," I replied.
"In the long run, every magical girl becomes a witch," said Kyubey. "A skilled
veteran who can keep a witch population under control is useful for when the
opposite problem happens. It's actually very unusual for a newly contracted
magical girl to take on a territory this witch infested alone and be of any
real benefit.
"Of course, the most useful magical girls are the ones who recognize the
benefits of maintaining a stable equilibrium and alternately breed or cull
witches as appropriate."
"What are the least useful magical girls to you?" asked Sloth. "I think that's
what I want to be."
"The least useful magical girls are the ones who break their Soul Gems," said
Kyubey. "Almost anything else will benefit us one way or another."
"If you're serious about not wanting that body broken, now would be a good time
to leave," I suggested.
Kyubey strolled off, and once he was out of earshot, Sloth said, "Okay, we need
to clear the witches out of this area, not hand any Grief Seeds over to Kyubey,
then see if we can find and break his Soul Gem."
"I'm on board," I said. "You want to do that before or after we finish off
raising these people? The ones we've already done will keep just fine like
this."
"No, we'll do it after," said Sloth. "They were the whole point of making this
contract, and whatever happens with Kyubey, I'm going to finish that now."
The shadow witch's Grief Seed was used in our cycle of reviving and re-
defeating witches alongside the rose bush witch's. My magic eye was able to
locate the Grief Seeds within their respective bodies and ensure we didn't
break the Grief Seed during our efforts. Finally, the last person was revived,
shrunk, and stored, Sloth's Soul Gem was clean, and we had two empty Grief
Seeds.
I kissed Sloth goodbye, confirmed my future self's arrival, then clapped my
hands and disappeared into the Gate.
                                     * * *
Author's comments:
Now that they've learned some of the horrible truths about the situation
they've gotten themselves into, our heroes have found their resolve, made their
plans, and are ready to move forward.
***** Progress *****
The Iron Sole Alchemist and Magical Girl Sloth (Chapter 6) Progress
by Howlin
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or
characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation.
This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)
                                     * * *
Once I arrived in Liore, I used my time turner to synchronize with the day
Edward and Alphonse Elirc were to arrive back in town. They were the foremost
experts on the subject of soul attachment and I needed to know what they made
of the one Grief Seed I'd brought with me, combined with what I knew about the
magical girl system Sloth found herself trapped in.
"That's awful," said Al after I finished relating the whole story.
"She's paying the price for her wish," said Edward. "What she can do now makes
the Philosopher's Stone look like a toy. There was bound to be a high price."
"Brother," said Al, astonishingly.
"She's paying the price," repeated Edward, "but we didn't give up at getting
our bodies back to normal after we paid the price for trying to bring mom back.
We'll do whatever we can to help her."
I put the Grief Seed on the table we were seated at and said, "I need to know
if there's a way to safely extract Sloth's soul and consciousness from her Soul
Gem and put her back into a homunculus body. If we can do that, preventing her
from becoming a witch is pretty straightforward."
Noah, who'd been quietly listening while the explanations were coming in, took
the Grief Seed and pressed it to her forehead. "There is a consciousness, but
it's dormant," she said.
"Do you know who this used to be?" asked Alphonse.
I shook my head.
"Well, let's start with the simple solution," said Edward. He drew a blood seal
on a piece of metal, clapped his hands, and touched the seal and the Grief
Seed. No alchemic light flickered. "It figures it wouldn't be that easy."
"The soul itself must've been altered," said Alphonse. "We should try to get a
better idea how the Grief Seed is put together."
Over the course of the next month, I worked with the Elric brothers analyzing
the Grief Seed. We were able to determine it wasn't made of normal matter. Red
stones and microscopes provided some insight, though a lot was left to
speculation. The black orb at its core seemed to be the altered form of the
soul itself. The alterations had a superficial similarity to how a horcrux
worked, but the fact that the whole soul was effected meant known methods for
repairing a soul from which horcruxes were made weren't applicable.
The rest of the Grief Seed's structure had a passing resemblance to solid state
electronics when viewed under a microscope. There were what looked like complex
alchemic diagrams layered around the structure that were only visible at the
microscopic level, the purpose of which we could only begin to speculate. Small
sections of those arrays were simple enough to verify the larger whole was
using alchemic principles, and that the similarities weren't mere coincidence.
Arithmancy principles were also integrated into the design, though as with the
alchemy elements, there was a level of complexity that was mind boggling. The
one thing I could say for certain by the end of our analysis was that the
beings who created this, and by extension Soul Gems, had an understanding of
science that dwarfed any human beings I had ever encountered.
Still, despite many lingering questions about the object's construction, the
mere fact that it was apparently technological in nature led me to believe the
principles it operated under could be unraveled and understood. I'd seen
stranger and more terrible things inside the Gate. That prospective sustained
me as I once again prepared to leave this world.
                                     * * *
I returned to Sloth's side in the abandoned industrial area we'd been working
in.
"Everyone made it to the other side okay," I told her when my past self
departed.
Sloth looked at me closely and asked, "How long have you been gone?"
"About a month," I said. "I asked for some help analyzing the Grief Seed while
I was there. No luck finding a way to reverse the process, but we did manage to
get a sense of what Kyubey knows, scientifically speaking."
"Apparently more than we do if you didn't have any luck finding a fix,"
reasoned Sloth.
"Soul Gems and Grief Seeds are more sophisticated and complex than anything
I've seen outside the Gate," I admitted.
"So, are you ready to go hunt down the rest of the witches in this area?" asked
Sloth.
"No," I said. "There are some more tests I want to run."
"They'll multiply if we wait too long," noted Sloth.
"Even so, we need a better understanding of your magic and what it can do," I
said. "When you transform, your Soul Gem isn't in a place you can see it, so
we'll need to map out how much magic your powers use so you can keep track in
combat."
We started small, with Sloth summoning her weapon repeatedly and transforming
back and forth. We tested Sloth's strength and speed in her untransformed
state, and then ran the same tests with her transformed. When transformed,
there turned out to be no hard upper limit to her strength and speed. The more
she pushed herself, the faster her magic drained, but if she were inclined to
dump all her power in a short burst, she could do more damage with one punch
than a nuclear weapon.
When her magic was actively reinforcing her, a fiery crimson aura enveloped her
body. Some experimentation revealed it could repel objects and with enough
magic, defend against attacks. She also proved capable of firing bolts of this
energy aura from her fingertips as damaging projectiles once she started
playing around with it. As an attack, it was far less energy efficient than her
yo-yos, but it was good to know she could do it.
It seemed ot both of us we'd barely scratched the surface of what she could do,
but as the sun set, Sloth insisted we go out hunting. She wanted us to scour
the city all night and wipe out every witch and familiar preying on people. As
Loki still needed sleep, we dropped him off in the lab before heading out.
                                     * * *
"This barrier was made by a familiar," said Sloth as we reached the end of the
first trail her Soul Gem picked up that night.
"No point going in, then," I said. "Without a Grief Seed to worry about
destroying, and with the barrier constituting a pocket dimension who's contents
will vanish if no living creature is holding them when the barrier collapses, I
can do this."
I clapped my hands and grabbed a rung from a fire escape ladder. Blue light
enveloped it as it turned into a ball with a transmutation circle engraved on
it. I stuck my hand into the barrier, circulating energy through the array, and
dropped the metal ball inside the barrier. A second later, the barrier
vanished.
"What did you do?" asked Sloth.
"I transmuted the metal ball into densely packed plutonium," I said.
"You're nuking familiars?" asked Sloth incredulously.
"They're in a pocket dimension," I said. "It's probably the only completely
safe place to set them off."
"It just seems like overkill," said Sloth.
"The way I see it, overkill only matters when you're worried about wasting
resources, and this is way more efficient than going inside to fight them, or
when you're worried about collateral damage, to which I say again: 'pocket
dimension'."
"You just want to prove you can transmute nukes," accused Sloth playfully.
"After all that time we spent developing them," I admitted, "it is nice to be
able to get a non-horrible use out of them."
All of the familiars we found met the same fate as we systematically searched
the city. Three clones of witches we'd fought before went down easily and
yielded Grief Seeds for our collection. It was nearly daybreak when we
approached the barrier of a witch we hadn't fought before. Sloth and I
transformed and stepped inside with out weapons at the ready.
This was one of the stranger barriers I'd been in. Sloth and I were both
floating as though we were underwater. There was no normal air in here, so the
blue blade of light extending from my wand tip went out like a flame starved of
oxygen. I felt a psychic assault attempting to breach my occlumency barriers as
I took in our surroundings.
Distant walls seemed to be papered in paintings of moving carousel horses.
Television screens displaying static hovered just off the walls. The ceiling
and floor were only barely visible in the distance. A group of familiars
approached us. They resembled wooden dummies artists used to reference for
posture. They were winged and their faces had stationary expressions that
seemed to be always facing me no matter how they moved. Each familiar was less
than a foot tall.
With my own body my only source of conventional matter, I decided to attempt a
technique used by the former homunculus Lust. The first technique I'd ever
witnessed a homunculus use, I only learned years later that it was called the
Ultimate Spear. I pointed at one of the familiars and used my shape shifting
powers to make that finger ten feet long and pointed, impaling the familiar too
fast for the eye to see. Then, just as quickly, I returned my finger to its
previous form.
The familiar I'd impaled dissolved, and the television screens displayed what
at first seemed to be an instant replay of the attack, before I realized they
had shown the attack an instant before it actually happened. The screens were
displaying what the witch could pull from our minds.
Sloth smashed a few familiars with her yo-yo as we looked around searching for
either the main witch or a way to travel deeper into the labyrinth. One of the
familiars grabbed hold of my foot, and suddenly, I wasn't made of normal matter
either. I could neither shape shift nor transmute myself. Tugging on where it
had gripped my foot, my body was stretched like taffy and I was helpless to do
anything about it. I couldn't even move my muscles.
Realizing I was in trouble, Sloth attacked the familiar grabbing me. Once I was
released, I snapped back to my proper shape and turned back into normal matter.
Now fully aware of the threat the familiars posed, Sloth and I destroyed them
quickly her with her yo-yos and me with the Ultimate Spear.
When the familiars were destroyed, a winged television laughed as it descended
from above. Sloth flared her aura and used the crimson light to propel herself
toward the new threat. Looking inside its body with the Mad Eye, I called out,
"That's the witch! The Grief Seed is near the back! Focus your attacks on the
screen!"
"Right," said Sloth as she threw two rapidly spinning red yo-yos at the witch.
The screen cracked and rainbow colored blood spurted out. It released more
familiars from the part of its screen that wasn't yet cracked. I impaled them
with my Ultimate Spear as quickly as it produced them so Sloth could focus on
the witch itself.
Sloth clapped her hands together and the strings of her two yo-yos twisted
together. When the red disks crashed into one another, instead of deflecting
off, they merged together in a burst of crimson light, now a single yo-yo the
size of Sloth's head. Swinging the massive weapon like a flail, the impact
struck the witch, shattering its screen and causing it to bleed black instead
of rainbow. The wings stopped moving, and the labyrinth collapsed, leaving us a
new Grief Seed.
"Where did you even get the idea you could do that?" I asked as I collected the
Grief Seed.
"I don't know," said Sloth. "It's kind of like an instinct."
"Well, it used up more magic, but it's a nice finishing move," I said.
"I'll bet I can make them even bigger," said Sloth.
"Probably for more magic cost," I agreed.
                                     * * *
When the sun came up, I insisted we go pick up Loki. Once he was fed and
watered, he joined us on our patrol. Sloth led us with purpose. I nuked a dozen
more familiars and we took down five more witches that were clones of the one
we'd faced before.
The barrier of the next new witch saw us standing on clotheslines made of
spider web in an endless sky. Familiars composed of the lower bodies of girls
wearing ice skates skated along the wen lines and tried to kick at us with
those blades. Everything in this barrier was made of normal matter, so rather
than try to balance on the lines, I used the arrays on my shoes to provide
Sloth, Loki, and I a platform of glowing blue transmuted air.
After the exotic attacks of the television witch's familiars, ice skates trying
to cut us up made for a nice breather. The witch herself was a gigantic figure
with no head, arms where its legs should be, and produced both spider web and
familiars from under its skirt. It proved vulnerable to flame alchemy and went
down easy.
For the next couple days, we continued our patrol, meeting only clones of the
same witches until we'd successfully wiped out every witch and familiar in the
city. With a very respectable stock of Grief Seeds in my shoulder bag for safe
keeping, and no humans in any immediate danger, Sloth finally felt like she
could take a break.
                                     * * *
Author's comments:
Things are going well for our heroes. The witches are becoming less of a threat
as their experience fighting them and Sloth's understanding of her new powers
grows. Everyone familiar with the source material can likely guess how long
things can keep going in this direction.
***** Romantic Interlude 29 *****
The Iron Sole Alchemist and Magical Girl Sloth (Chapter 7) Romantic Interlude
29
by Howlin
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or
characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation.
This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)
                                     * * *
***WARNING***
This chapter contains sexually explicit material involving young children. You
can skip this chapter and still understand the story. If you do not want to
read about this, go directly to chapter 8.
***WARNING***
                                     * * *
"I'm filthy," said Sloth when we returned to the lab.
"I wasn't going to say anything," I teased.
"I really miss my old powers," Sloth said. "Cleaning up was always so easy.
I'd've never ended up a grimy, sweaty mess like this after a few days."
"I could've deconstructed the grime any time if you'd asked," I said.
"I appreciate the offer, but if this is going to be my life now, I'll have to
get used to taking care of myself."
"Does that mean I shouldn't cook us up some pork chops, mashed potatoes,
carrots, and peas and instead let you do it?" I inquired.
"Of course you should still do the cooking," said Sloth. "I need to take a
shower and you don't. Besides, eating's a luxury for us still anyway."
"Just trying to see how far this independence thing was going to go," I said
with a smirk.
While I laid out the ingredients on a transmutation circle, I used the Mad Eye
to look through a wall and watch Sloth in the shower. There were multiple
options, and she'd selected a conventional hot water shower. Her clothes laid
in a heap outside the stall, and she undid her twin braids, which had gotten
loose and frayed over the last couple days of fighting.
She started by closing her big, blue eyes, turning her face to the shower head,
and letting the hot water cascade down her naked body, relaxing tense muscles
and symbolically clearing away the violence of the past few days. Then, she
took a bar of soap, worked up a lather, and started scrubbing herself down. The
grime of the last few days was more visible when contrasted with the smooth,
clean skin left after she finished an area.
The light glistened off Sloth's wet body as she ran a hand across her gorgeous
flat chest, along the curves of her perfect, round butt cheeks, down her smooth
legs and between her tiny toes. Then, she took some shampoo, plopped it down on
top of her head, and began to lather her long, brown hair.
Finally, after rinsing out all the soap, she turned off the water and began
rubbing herself down with a fluffy pink bath towel. Mostly dry, Sloth wrapped
the towel around her head and pulled on a pair of clean, white panties then
turned to the sink. She brushed her teeth and looked herself over in the
mirror. Satisfied with the results, she pulled on a set of light blue, flannel
pajamas we'd picked up for her at the store earlier.
Unwrapping the towel on her head, Sloth looked at her hair and frowned.
Deciding against braiding it, she put it into a long ponytail instead. Tossing
all of the laundry into a hamper, Sloth emerged from the bathroom looking
refreshed and renewed.
"Have a seat," I offered as I settled down at our table. Two steaming plates of
food were in place, having been transmuted just before she came out.
Sloth sat down and took a knife and fork in her fists. Breathing in deep
through her nose, Sloth smiled.
"It's amazing how much I needed this," said Sloth as she started to eat.
"We may not be physically human, but we are psychologically human. Rest and
relaxation are important," I said as I dug in myself.
"Even so, I feel like we did the right thing, pushing ourselves to clear the
city."
I nodded. "We know there are other magical girls keeping the witch population
in other cities under control. We'll still need to patrol to catch witches and
familiars coming in from outside or Kyubey trying to reseed the area, but
keeping the city clear won't be nearly as much effort as clearing it in the
first place."
"And with all these Grief Seeds and a way to empty them, I don't have to worry
about turning into a witch, so I can go out and do some good with my powers.
I'm thinking about going to the hospital tomorrow and curing some of the people
who won't recover on their own."
"Sounds good," I said, glad she was feeling so much more upbeat.
After we finished eating, I cleaned the plates with alchemy and returned them
to the cupboard. Sloth got up and started rummaging around in the refrigerator.
I'd stocked it when first setting up the lab.
"Are you still hungry?" I asked.
"I thought you might like some desert," she said, taking a bottle of chocolate
sauce out. Then she smirked at me, pulled at her waistband, and purred the
chocolate sauce down her pants behind her back.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Well, I just got clean," said Sloth, wiggling her hips. "Now I figure I'm
clean enough to eat off of."
Sloth led me into the bedroom and stripped off her pajamas, revealing a large
brown stain on the butt of her panties. She bent over to show it off better.
"Was the plan to make it look like you shit yourself?" I asked.
"The plan was to entice you to lick my ass clean," said Sloth. "Try to get your
tongue all the way up in the crack."
I smiled and pulled her panties off, then I took Sloth by her hands and gently
lowered her, face down, onto our bed. She'd smeared it around good on the way
into the bedroom. I leaned down and licked her butt cheek. Sloth laughed and
relaxed.
I was very thorough in my tongue bathing the outer curvature of my wife's
buttocks, swallowing every drop of the sweet syrup there, before I ran my
tongue experimentally along her butt crack. Sloth hummed with pleasure as I did
so. Even after all these years together, with so much else on her mind, Sloth
was still making up new games for us to try.
Licking chocolate out of the but crack of a prepubescent girl was a
terrifically pleasurable experience. The fact that it was her idea just made it
better. I reached around and masturbated Sloth as I continued to dig around
between her butt cheeks with my tongue. She didn't take long under that
treatment to reach her orgasm, calling out in pleasure as it came.
Sloth's body was completely relaxed when I got the last of the chocolate out of
her butt crack. I climbed up onto the bed with her and looked her in the eye,
smiling. She had a slightly glazed expression, but smiled back.
"Well, between watching you in the shower earlier and what we just did, I'm
really hard right now," I told her. "I know you're tired just now, but I'd
really like to shove my dick up your ass. I'll do all the work. What do you
say?"
Sloth nodded, then plopped her face down on the pillow. I got myself into
position, put the head of my penis between Sloth's butt cheeks, and pressed
inside her anus.
Sloth's cries as I penetrated her were muffled by the pillow. She was tired,
but not so tired she couldn't squirm weakly as I pressed deeper inward. One of
my hands gripped Sloth by the crotch while the other groped her flat chest.
When I came, it was the culmination of the entire evening's activities, and I
had plenty of built up fluid to shoot into my lover's body even without using
my regenerative powers to prolong my orgasm. I was satisfied. As my penis went
flaccid, I avoided removing it from her butt. My groping hands shifted and
pulled Sloth into a tender embrace. Spooning together like that, we went to
sleep.
                                     * * *
Author's comments:
A nice meal, a new game, and a snapshot of the life they'd both like to lead.
***** A New Witch is Born *****
The Iron Sole Alchemist and Magical Girl Sloth (Chapter 8) A New Witch is Born
by Howlin
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or
characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation.
This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)
                                     * * *
When Sloth and I woke the next morning, refreshed and optimistic, we washed up,
then I sat down and braided her hair into her usual twin braids. Sloth picked
out a new outfit from the shopping trip a few days ago, this time a lime green
sundress.
Sloth led the way to the local hospital, and Loki and I followed close behind.
The avoid questions, Sloth took her invisibility cloak out of her bag and
disappeared under it. I concealed myself and Loki under mine. Thanks to the Mad
Eye, I could still see Sloth, and I followed her into the hospital and through
the halls.
Sloth went room by room, stopping to read the medical charts as she went. Any
time she found someone with an incurable disease or a crippling injury, Sloth
converted her Soul Gem from ring form to egg form and cured the patient. Sloth
and I both took advantage of the opportunity to get a feel for how much magic
healing different things took.
When her Soul Gem had grown dark, we slipped out of the building and headed for
the abandoned industrial part of town we'd chosen to fight revived witches.
There was a half full Grief Seed we expected to reach its limit after this use
in our inventory.
Kyubey was waiting for us. In response to Sloth's and my body language growing
tense, Loki looked around for the threat, but he had no way of detecting the
creature. Kyubey hopped down off the bus stop roof he was perched on and
casually strolled up to us.
"It isn't a good idea to let your Soul Gem get that dark," said Kyubey. "It
leaves you very vulnerable."
Sloth grabbed the furry white creature, reached into her bag, and force fed him
some veritasyrum. A cruel grin spread on Sloth's face.
"I'm glad to see you, Kyubey," said Sloth. "The next stage of our plan was to
find out where you're keeing your Soul Gem so we can stop wasting our time
destroying your spare bodies."
"Only magical girls have Soul Gems," said Kyubey cheerfully. "Incubators
operate as a distributed consciousness. If you wanted to kill me, you'd have to
destroy all my bodies, which would be impossible for you since they aren't all
on earth."
Sloth and I looked at each other. That was disappointing. We'd need a new plan
for dealing with Kyubey.
"I really don't understand why you want to kill me," said Kyubey. "I granted
you an impossible miracle you never could have achieved on your own. You're
contributing to the preservation of the universe, and you've been able to use
your powers to rid this city of witches and protect the people here. None of
that would be possible without the contract."
"And if it were just about me, I might even consider it a good deal," said
Sloth. "All these powers and I can keep delaying the price indefinitely. But
every witch I've fought either was originally a magical girl, or was a copy of
a witch who was. This is as much about what you did to them as what you tried
to do to me."
"Every one of the magical girls I contracted entered into it willingly. Each of
them had a wish they decided of their own free will was worth it. We always
give a choice and never force a magical girl to contract."
"How can you say they had a choice if they didn't know what they were agreeing
to?" I demanded. "You didn't tell Sloth half of this until after it was too
late to back out, and even that, we only got out of you by interrogating you
with truth serum."
"Drugging me was actually unnecessary," said Kyubey. "I'm not allowed to lie."
"Lies of omission are still lies," said Sloth. "Leaving out details in such a
way that your victim doesn't realize there are more questions to ask is one of
the most effective forms of manipulation there is. After all, if you get
caught, you can just play innocent and say, 'You never asked.'"
"Explaining all the details just isn't possible," said Kyubey. "Simplified
explanations are required when dealing with concepts your species doesn't even
have words to describe."
"You know the fact that magical girls turn into witches is important
information, and that wasn't some incomprehensibly alien concept," I countered.
"Only because I was still simplifying it to make it easier for you to
understand," argued Kyubey.
"You're not talking your way out of this," said Sloth. "If you won't die, then
at least get off this planet."
"You don't understand what you're asking," said Kyubey. "If I weren't here to
make contracts with magical girls, who would fight the witches?"
"We managed okay before Sloth contracted," I pointed out.
"Using skills and abilities the humans of this world don't have," said Kyubey.
"And you only found the witch at all because of my experience. Without a Soul
Gem, it's incredibly difficult to even find a witch."
"There are still magical girls around," said Sloth. "Without you recruiting new
girls and reseeding depleted territories, the veterans can just move on to
areas where they're needed and eventually wipe out all the witches."
"Assuming the magical girls win," said Kyubey, "what do you think will happen
next? Eventually, the last magical girl will turn into a witch and there will
be no one who can do anything to stop that witch. Familiars will break off and
grow into more witches until there are no humans left to kill."
"You're the reason that would happen!" yelled Sloth. "If you'd never come to
this world, it wouldn't need you!"
"The fact of the matter is, the current situation is stable," said Kyubey.
"There's nothing you can do to change it, and even if you could, you'd only
make things worse."
Sloth dropped Kyubey and took a halting step back from the creature. Her head
was down and her eyes had the hollow, blank look of a person who'd just been
attacked by dementors.
"I really believed I could be a hero," said Sloth in a low voice as tears
welled up in her eyes. "I could fix all the horrible things my father forced me
to do. I could save everyone from the witches. I could stop this."
"Sloth?" I said, concerned.
"I can't do anything to stop Kyubey," said Sloth, tears streaming down her
cheeks. "If I stay alive, I'll turn into a witch and hurt and kill people until
everything good I've done is canceled out. The only way to come out ahead is to
die now."
Sloth converted her Soul Gem from ring form to egg form, reeled her hand back,
and moved to smash it on the cement road.
"No!" I yelled and dove to intercept her. I just barely made it, cradling the
Soul Gem in my palms as I lay on my stomach, my skin rapidly repairing itself
from the scrapes I got in the process. The gold entwined crystal that was the
core of Sloth's being was completely black. It wasn't that dark when we left
the hospital.
A weak, ironic smile appeared on Sloth's lips and she said, "I couldn't even
get that right."
Then her Soul Gem exploded in my hand. Darkness flew from the central crystal
generating winds that blew Loki and I off our feet and slammed us hard into a
wall alongside Sloth's limp and empty corpse. The gold wire encasing the
crystal was nowhere to be seen, but silvery light formed in the vague shape of
a Grief Seed around the crystal still expelling energy fast enough to keep Loki
and I pinned to the wall.
The energies buffeting me were insignificant compared with the total I knew
must be being released. This was the equivalent of waste heat from an
impossibly efficient engine. It would have been a lot more impressive if it
weren't for the fact that the most important person in the multiverse to me
just fulfilled Trelawney's prophecy that she would fall to despair darker than
death.
As the Grief Seed formed, so did Sloth's labyrinth. The world melted away
around me, and when the wind stopped, the Grief Seed was nowhere to be seen. I
was in a stone room with a high ceiling and wide columns. There was no light
source, but the massive room was illuminated none the less. There were no
shadows. A heavy set of double doors served as the only way in or out. A simple
alchemy array on the door served as both decoration and lock.
This place was made of matter. The transmutation circle on the door was fully
functional, as were the ones on my body and equipment. Loki and Sloth's empty
body were in the room with me.
The room reminded me intensely of the Chamber of Secrets. More so when I
spotted the witch. A massive serpent with shining black scales lay coiled in a
large circle with its tail in its own mouth. A pair of bat like wings were
folded at its sides. Purple, slitted eyes opened and focused on me.
"Hello, Sloth," I said, sadly.
Using her wings to add speed to her strike, her body launched toward me the
instant she released her tail. I held out my hands to catch her jaws, but her
mouth passed right through my hands as if they weren't there. She'd gotten her
intangibility powers back, and she'd used them to sink her massive fangs into
my flesh.
"We'll fix this," I promised as I felt the venom she injected into my body
begin to liquefy my internal organs.
Loki transformed and tried to bite Sloth's tail to make her let me go, but his
jaws passed harmlessly through her body. Small blessing it was, she didn't seem
to have enough control to use her intangibility offensively. When she was back
to normal, I didn't want her carrying the guilt of killing Loki again. She did
swipe at him with her tail, slamming him hard against one of the columns, but
Loki was built to take way worse punishment than that.
I used the transmutation circle on my back to slightly alter the composition of
the outer layer of my skin several times a second. That had proven an effective
counter to Sloth's intangibility in the past. This time, it had no effect
whatsoever. Despite its superficial similarity to her old powers, these proved
to operate under a different principle altogether.
She lifted me off my feet and tossed me in the air. Her maw was opened wide
beneath me. I used the arrays on my shoes to solidify a disk of air under me so
I wouldn't fall. She sprang up toward me. I leapt aside rather than risk her
passing through the glowing blue disk of light that had been supporting me.
Loki ran up to me and whimpered when I landed on the ground, my body fully
regenerated. He didn't know what to do. I signaled him to fetch and protect
Sloth's body. It would give him something to do, keep him out of the way, and
ensure we didn't lose what Sloth had on her when the labyrinth collapsed.
Now, I just needed to beat the giant serpent that circled in the air overhead
that couldn't be touched unless she wanted to be. In our first battle, I'd
relied on the fact that she needed to touch the ground in order to trap her in
a pit. Now, her wings had to touch the air to keep her aloft. A flame alchemy
array drew itself on the back of my hand and I snapped my fingers.
The plan had been to burn her wings off and ground her. Instead, she suffered
no damage whatsoever as she passed through the flames. She dove at me from
overhead and I dodged aside, transmuting a bed of spikes where I'd been
standing in the vain hope she'd have trouble with the timing.
She passed through the floor. Before her tail passed into the ground, I clapped
and reached out, attempting to deconstruct it directly. Unfortunately, while
everything else here was made of normal matter, her body wasn't.
The Mad Eye let me see her when she flew up at me from below, and I dodged
again. I briefly considered ending this by attacking the Grief Seed inside her
body, but rejected it. I wasn't going to destroy what was left of her. A risky
plan formulated in my mind.
I removed the Mad Eye from my socket and put it in my bag, then tossed the bag
aside. While we were both inside her labyrinth, I could see her without it.
"Don't worry," I said as I stopped dodging. "I don't care what Kyubey says.
I'll stop you right here and now, before you can kill anyone."
She bit down on my midsection injecting more venom, then swallowed me. If I
were human, I'd already be long dead, but as I wasn't human, I remained alive
and conscious as I was being digested. To keep me inside her stomach,
compressed and bathed in acid, she needed to remain tangible to me.
I clapped my hands. The human body is composed of water, hydrocarbons, trace
amounts of metals, basically everything you need to make a bomb. Taking
advantage of that fact was the specialty of the Crimson Alchemist, Zolf J.
Kimbley. A homunculus has the same body composition as a human being. I
transmuted myself and immediately exploded.
As I regenerated back to life, I retrieved my bag and reinserted the Mad Eye.
Sloth's serpentine body had been blasted in half and dissolved. The labyrinth
collapsed and I caught the descending Grief Seed.
Loki had carried Sloth's body safely out of the labyrinth. Kyubey had stayed
far enough away when the labyrinth formed that he hadn't been caught up in it,
and was waiting when I emerged.
"You set her right," I ordered Kyubey, holding out Sloth's Grief Seed. "Turn it
back into a normal soul. Turn it back into a Soul Gem. I don't care, but fix
her, or I will make you regret it."
"What you're asking for is impossible," said Kyubey, swishing his tail lazily.
"Then make it a wish," I said. "You can grant any miracle, no matter how
impossible, right? I wish Sloth was normal and back in her body again along
with her consciousness."
"You aren't a magical girl candidate," said Kyubey. "If you were, you'd be able
to see me without that eye."
"Grant my wish, Incubator!" I yelled at him.
"As I said, you aren't a magical girl candidate. Really, there's no further
point conversing with you at all." He started to walk away.
"So, you either can't or won't help me," I said, hatred seething in my voice. I
took Sloth's things off her body and stuffed them in my bag along with her
Grief Seed. "Then I'll find someone who can and will."
Kyubey turned back as I clapped my hands. An alchemic array drew itself in the
air above me and Loki. It passed down over us, and the two of us entered the
Gate, leaving Kyubey and his universe behind. Kyubey couldn't follow.
With the Truth flooding my mind, I knew the Incubators had never attempted
human transmutation. Originally attempted out of grief and loss, emotions the
Incubators could neither experience nor understand, they never had and never
would see the need. That was why, for all their knowledge, they lacked the
theoretical underpinning to make use of the array I used to travel between
worlds.
Protecting myself and my dog from the Gate Children, I navigated us to a new
world. There, someone could help.
                                     * * *
Author's comments:
Kyubey has won. He was able to take advantage of the feelings of guilt and
remorse Sloth had to trick her into a contract, and nudged her toward the
inevitable fate of all magical girls. He got the energy he wanted, and suffered
no meaningful harm. But he has made an enemy in the process. With his access to
the multiverse, that Greed can find someone to restore Sloth is all but
guaranteed, and no one worthy of the name Greed will forget someone who took
something so precious away from him.
Please drop_by_the_archive_and_comment to let the author know if you enjoyed
their work!