chapter 1:

And hold it tight.

All living souls, have a body and a reflection, what is physical and what we see… and, like us, the world we inhabit is much the same, a fractal with many sides, each reflection a perspective, each side, an existence and reality, worlds unto themselves, all familiar, yet oh so different.

We call these Mirrors. An apt name isn’t it?

And across the many Mirrors of our universe and realm, one thing is understood: our reality follows an order and that order must be upheld.

And through all of these Mirrors it is also understood that many forces may attempt to throw that order out of balance. From catastrophes of immense magnitude, to individuals who seek to upend the status quo, to those few powerful creatures whose existence throws reality into chaos.

Some are considered facets of nature, yet some are thought of as more than that, those beings classified as magical threats by their existence, an alteration of the fundamental rules that govern a Mirror.

To combat these forces, a certain Mirror and realm employs and organizes its own force to reimpose order within them: magical girls

Within this “root” Mirror as some tend to call it, the self appointed Magicka Standards Committee, oversees and “regulates”, the magical forces present within each, as the very usage of magic could lead to imbalance.

Or to be more precise, chaos.

To do so they send their emissaries out across these Mirrors, creatures created whole cloth to find Maidens of strong character, who can uphold the order of their homes and fight for a peaceful future.

Within a Mirror almost but not quite like our own, one of these emissaries has been sent to find one such a maiden.

Oh what a bother, what a bother...

5 pm, Red Mountain city, the city next to mountain, a red one, at the downtown business district.

“Well I guess this is where I felt a Maidens potential… it is quite strong but…”.

A diminutive little creature of felt and stuffing stands below, hiding in the shadow, trying its best to avoid any curious eyes. It scratches one of its long floppy ears in a circular motion of puzzlement as it looks upwards onto its point of interest, a big - in fact very large - towering, even - office of some business it couldn't quite understand,being wholly unable to read the signs adorning every vertical surface.

“It's gonna take a while to comb through something so big though… aaaawgh, this is why I am not fond of modern Mirrors…” the creature let out a small sigh of its stitched mouth, before quickly hopping towards the building, scampering between shadows so as to not be seen, not that a bright purple little plushie would be easily unnoticed. Hop hop hop.

5:30 pm, inside the previously mentioned building, one office of Hammond equity.

A lone man passes a mop across a tile floor, scrubbing and scrubbing away, actions which had long become a routine he didn't even think about.

Marks on the floor going away, footsteps being erased, a lingering thought in their head all the while, as people pass them without much notice. They look to the floor, an image of someone staring back at them, a face they did not much like, but yet had to wear anyway… a singular word of thanks, or even acknowledgement, by someone would at least make it worth having to wear it on their head everyday, but yet the man and his work were never really noticed, never really felt or cared for…

A lonely existence, yet one that he had grown accustomed to nonetheless.

At least until someone actually did notice them

“Hi Frank, hard at work again?” The one voice the man heard with regularity piped from behind him.

“O-oh! Hi Katheine! Spooked me there a bit, heh…” the man, frank as so he called himself, lightly scratched the back of his neck while giving a rather meek laugh.

“Oh, apologies! Just you seemed a little bit down, so I thought I might check on you”. Katheine was the one person on the building that ever seemed to pay attention to him, something he appreciated. The little chats they had, though short thanks to their busy schedules, were always pleasant, and Frank just appreciated having one person he could reasonably talk to and not feel too awkward with.

“I am fine really… don't worry too much, it just gets real quiet sometimes and I get a bit lost in my thoughts, that's really all it is at the end of the day”.

“You say that, but the expression on your face doesn't seem to be the happiest, it worries me you know?”, ah, she always seemed to be able to get just how he felt at the end of the day. Really, from what he occasionally overheard from other workers, she just always cared about the feelings of those around her, and even Frank was one she never seemed to leave just be if he didn't look alright.

The man looked down and let out a short sigh. He felt the office worker was perhaps someone he could confide in, something he didn't have otherwise, “...just, I feel pretty lonely sometimes, don't really have many people both here or elsewhere to talk or spend time with is all, nothing really major…”.

“I don't know exactly about that, that seems quite major to me”. The expression on her face soured a little with worry, “ Really, loneliness is not really something anyone should deal with, and you are far too nice of a person, to have to just suffer it quietly”.

“It's no big deal really…” he stared out the window.

“Cmon, none of that! Next time I have some free time here I am gonna introduce you to some of the guys here, you need some more friends around in your life”.

“Eh, you sure? Don't even know what to talk about, haha…”. A meek little laugh spurts out of him.

“Oooh no, don't say that, I am sure got lots to talk about!!”, she for a second closes her eyes, before adjusting her glasses slightly, “really, i can't see that being the case when you are one of the only men in this place I feel I can just talk with”.

“Huh, really…”, while in a way, that was something quite nice to hear, he couldn't help but feel slightly wounded by her choice of words… he knew why, but it was not exactly something he liked thinking about.

“Yeah, Really! I am being quite honest here you kn-”, as the last of the words left her mouth, a flash of realization crossed her face, and so she quickly drew her cellphone from her pocket, “oh dangit, seems like I am outta time to chat today… I am gonna have to pull overtime at this point…” she quickly puts it back in her pocket, and looks back at Frank, “sorry, gotta go, still have a lotta i gotta do today”.

“Oh, it's aight, work is work”. He raised his hand and gave a quick goodbye motion, ”see ya later Katheine, have a good rest of the day”.

“Alright thank you, and hey, if I don't see ya today, I am hunting you down tomorrow for that introduction okay?”. Katheirne flashed a quick wink and a point of her finger, “alright, see ya later Frank!” She left rather quickly after that, obviously hurried. Frank just stared after hers as he meekly said to himself.

“Ah well… back to work…”

5:45 pm, janitor storage room:

Nice as the conversation had been, Frank had to go back and get the storage room in order before he could clock off. While most of the janitorial staff on the building rather enjoyed this part, or at least the fact it meant the work day was coming to a close, he didn't pay much thought to it - there was not much at home he was eager to get back to.

Making sure the buckets were empty, the cleaning products were safely stowed away, the mops were clean - or rather he tried to, but tonight something quite unusual was happening.

Thud! A noise came from his back. As he turned to look, one of the buckets seemed to have been knocked to the ground. He didn't think he had hit something, much less with his back, and the bucket probably didn't just fall on his own, so his mind came to the one conclusion it could make for such an event.

“Aaaah fuck… not rats again”. He wasn’t one to swear, it wasn’t really in his blood, but the thought only brought back memories of the last time he’d had to deal with rats in the building. The bosses up top didn't pay enough attention to actually hire proper extermination services when they were needed, and the janitorial staff was short charged as it was; last time it had a concerted effort from all of them to get the problem squashed before the higher ups could notice - and almost assuredly reprimand the very tired workforce.

Thud! And there was another one! He quickly moved to check and hopefully catch the criminal in the act, but upon swooping over and crouching down he instead saw something…odd?

A plushie? A bunny? A little stuffed animal in a hat? That's…not a thing you would expect to find in a janitor’s closet, or at least he himself hadn’t.

Yet he’d clearly found one at the moment.

Pausing for a second, he thought to himself “how exactly have I found this here”, a few ideas crossing his mind. Maybe one of the other janitors in an earlier shift had their kid around? Maybe it was a gift and they simply forgot to put it in a locker? It wouldn't be the first time someone did so. Maybe one of them started to bring it as a comfort toy - he had heard of such things being used in the workforce as of late - though a stuffed purple rabbit was one he didn't think would be a good choice for a janitor.

Thud! Aw damn it's that rat again! That was his first thought at least, until he opened his eyes and saw… the stuffie face first to the ground and a few feet away? What?

“... did we get some super big rats?... that thing just flew…”. Even more puzzled he stared at the face down stuffie.

…and oddly got the urge to poke it. Not exactly a rational thought but not a harmful one either. and hey at least the plushie seemed soft and nice.

Poke, poke poke.

The first three pokes felt like… well poking a stuffie, as Frank thought to himself. It honestly wasn't anything different and why would it be? It was in fact, a stuffie. So that’s why he went for fourth, just for the heck of it, expecting nothing to happen.

That was when the bunny stuffie somehow twitched.

“What?!” Frank thought to himself. Normally when you poke something inanimate it tends to be you moving it, but frank felt… resistance? A push and shake back? He didn't know of any felt and stuffing that was quite so resistant and reactive.

Confused, he picked it up, honestly just wanting to feel it in his hands so as to tell himself, “Frank, you're not dealing with moving stuffed animals, you are probably just tired”.

So it didn't feel the best when he put his hands on the stuffie’s chest and felt an even larger twitch.

“...didn't think I would go nuts over finding a stuffed rabbit…”, under most circumstances such words would be a simple joke, but to Frank, honest soul he thought he was, even to himself, they held more meaning.

Long work days, little money and lonely existence, he thought of all the stress he had been shouldering and just sadly sighed, knowing that his reaction to this stuffed rabbit was just the last warning sign that he was truly spent. Really, an understandable rationalization, he always knew of his issues and how they would come back to bite him one day.

Sitting there, he closed his eyes and clutched the stuffie just a bit harder, his hands started to shake, tears welling in his eye…

… A tear that didn’t even reach his chin before he heard a loud yell. A yell coming from out of his hands.

A yell coming out of the stuffed animal.

“YOU STOP SQUEEZING ME SO HARD! IF I HAD LUNGS I WOULDN'T BE BREATHING RIGHT NOW”. the stuffed bunny yelled with a voice so piercing it almost made Frank’s ears bleed.

Frank was startled, almost falling onto their butt, but he still launched the poor squeezed stuffed animal several feet, hurriedly scurrying backwards. Perhaps it was absurd, to be running from a plushie, but the shock of seeing it talk had put them in quite the state of panic.

“Oh god I am losing it, I am losing it losing it losingitlosi-” Frank repeated to himself, air barely coming out of his now overworked and fast beating lungs, at least until he was quite promptly interrupted.

“Hey! HEY! None of that! The last recruit I had in a modern mirror tried to use that excuse to ignore me! And I am NOT dealing with when I almost had my stuffing explode out of my very body!”. The tiny little creature of stitches and felt spoke, one hand pointing forward in accusation, the other seemingly shaking in rage.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN? HOW CAN YOU TALK? STUFFED ANIMALS CAN'T DO THAT!” feeling just a few more marbles being lost out of his head, Frank stared at the creature in front of him, still trying to rationalize to the end.

“Of course not! I am more than that! I am an important emissary on an even more important mission to the mirror your world sits in!”. The bunny creature struck a pompous pose, drawing itself to its full height, which was still not terribly much, clearly wanting to showcase just how much of a big deal they were.

“Emissary? Mission? W-what???”. Frank blurted out, confusion overpowering his sheer panic.

“Yes yes! I am Kezaren 265! And I am in this place to find a courageous Maiden to become a magical girl!”. A name had seemingly been spoken by the bunny creature, however the sounds and noises were just seemingly indiscernible static to Frank’s ears, or any human ear for that matter.

“Huh?!? Kezaren 265???”, Frank could only echo the strange sound back at this point, the fact he could say something unquestionably unspeakable pulling the panic back to the forefront of his brain.

“Oh god! This damn place is so… modern, that people here don't understand the tongue of magicka!!!”. The bunny creature’s words at this point sounded like nothing more than riddles to poor Frank, riddles so alien and complicated, they threatened to twist and tie his brain into tight knots, ones that could never be untied.

”Look! As I said, I am here on a mission! And the least you can do at this point is help me with it!”, the words came as a hiss of annoyance from the bunny creature's mouth.

“M-mission? H-help!?”, Frank was nothing but scared at this point, head swimming with so much jargon and words and… things not meant to be known? He hopes the last one is not the case, oooh he did not want it so.

“Yes! Once again I am here to find a maiden of strong courageous heart!”, the little purple bunny paced around the room in a circle, each step an exaggeratedly pompous maneuver, as it tried to cram yet more information onto a head currently stock full and spilling. “I had sensed such a maiden in this very building! In this very room! However in my attempt to wait for them i instead met you! Since you threw a wrench into my plans, and worse! Were exposed to my existence! The bare minimum of the minimum, is for you to help me Find! That! Maiden!”.

“Wh…what?!”, if Frank had been able to hear the marbles falling out of his head, he thought to himself that that would be the moment he would heard the last one clink to the ground.

6:05 pm, nearing the closing of our very dull building

Ever seen a scene in a cartoon where a person tailing someone peeks out of the corner in a comical manner? Frank felt he was doing that exact thing at that moment, and becoming acutely aware that, in actual reality, it does not work.

Now mind you, normally people doing that also don't have to hold stuffed animals in the inside of their overalls, much less stuffed animals that could talk. Talking stuffed animals that he so wished were just a massive hallucination on his part, but yet, just moments ago he had seen that yes, other people could hear the damn thing.

As he let the face of the stuffed, stitched, felt bunny creature out through the cuffs of his overalls, the creature’s compressed head popped out, hitting Frank, first in his nose with the point of their pointed hat, and then in his eyes with both of their floppy bunny ears.

Turns out, felt, though soft, was still an irritant to his eyes.

The bunny creature looked out and looked over, at a group of women getting ready for the end of the workday, and, searching for their supposed “maiden”, asked Frank just who among them he felt it could actually be.

Now mind you, Frank at this point not only felt that he was bound for the loony bin, they felt like quite the creep skulking around, talking stuffie sticking out of chest notwithstanding. “U-uh the blonde one with l-long hair, s-sara, she regularly yells and fights over the p-phone…”, an attempt to guide the bunny creature to one of them, in the faint hope it might end up with him out of this situation.

“No no, I have no feeling on that lady, plus she sounds less courageous and more just plain rude”, his plush passenger’s words slashed clean through any hopes Frank had of a swift escape and sent it drifting to the ground in tatters.

“T-the one in the brown suit, s-susan I think? She regularly beats the guys who come up to her to challenge her to arm w-wrestling…”, yet another attempt, a solid one Frank thought to himself.

“...hmmm impressive, impressive, but impressiveness doesn't mean courageousness, such a great feat of strength and skill aside” Damnit! Another swing, another bunt. No home runs for Frank today.

“T-the other blonde one! Yeah! I don't know her name, b-but I heard her say she ate a whole bucket of, g-ghost pepper chicken wings!”. One last one! One last hail mary to potential freedom!

“Look, dear, I do not know what a ghost pepper is, besides a variant of a berry, but even if I did, that sounds like nothing else but meaningless grandstanding”. Okay yeah, Frank was officially dead and in hell, or at least the building on the other side of the street from it.

“...I give up…” a sound of defeat coming out of Frank’s poor, poor mouth…

“Hey! None of that! I am Kezaren 265, and I have both a reputation and an important mission to uphold!”, the bunny creature yelled, even as Frank scrambled to put his hands over their stitched mouth.

“Please, p-please don't yell! And please don't say w-whatever… that noise is!”, Frank is nothing if exasperated at the moment, an exasperation that for a moment overpowers his deep, deep fear.

Removing one of Frank's hands from atop of their mouth, our normally pompous plush spoke in a far more hushed tone, “ fair, fair, my apologies, you do honestly deserve a break.”

That aforementioned air of pompousness the creature previously put up, faded away for a moment, and it seemed more understanding of Frank's plight, “If it pleases you, and helps us find our important maiden without trouble, I more than allow for you to call me something in your own tongue”.

“U-uh, w-would B-bonnie be okay?” Frank, not much else coming to his mind, says the first thing he could think.

“Bonnie huh? For bunny? Oh well, if it makes you more comfortable than i more than accept it for the moment…”, as the creature finishes their sentence, a small sigh comes out of them, one that in spite of their lack of lungs, sounds quite worried. “However I do not kid when I say my mission is important, on it rides the safety and life of more people than you can imagine”.

The back of Frank's throat dried up, while previously he had thought this was nothing but mere punishment, the newly dubbed Bonnie's honesty and seriousness had hit his heart like a dagger, “l-life? Why is that s-so?”.

“My dear, if you value your ability to sleep at night, or even your own life for that matter, then I ask that you ask no further questions”, Bonnie’s air of seriousness only increased at that moment, it proceeding to open their felt mouth once again, “for your own safety, please, no more”.

Just now grasping that the seemingly fantastical things that happened to him at this last hour were not without reason, Frank let out a deep breath, and clutching his hands together, tried his best to calm himself down, and harder still to psych himself up, to meet the duty now being placed on his shoulders.

“Alright, let's find your maiden”.

7:00 pm, long past the official working hours, overtime:

Frank and Bonnie searched room after room for people, or signs of people, still around. At first, somewhat luckily, they found a few groups still lingering around in spite of the end of the working hours. Yet that luck quickly ran out.

They went into accounting, searching for Amanda, someone who Frank thought had a fiery spirit in spite of their position. No dice.

They went into the other janitorial rooms, searching for the tall lady that had just joined, hoping that maybe, just maybe a lack of knowledge on Frank's part would prove the key to why they haven't yet found the sought after maiden. Nada, not her either.

They even went into dread halls of HR, searching for Rachel, thinking perhaps that her coldness translated into the supposed courage. To no avail, though at least Frank was happy it wasn't her, as even if only in the privacy of his mind, Rachel, he thought, was kinda of a bitch.

Or at least he wanted to think he was happy, but with an entire hour passing, almost the entire workforce had left for the day, leaving only a skeleton crew behind.

Crew that they already checked, and crew that they knew, to a woman, were not the one.

Dejected, Frank sat down on the floor, and cupped his face in his hands, feeling nothing but disappointment at the duty he had fallen short of.

Bonnie looked up at them, and the pompous air they typically had once again vanished, now replaced entirely by worry for the person in front of them, “h-hey! Don't be discouraged! I think we can still accomplish this mission!”

Bonnie wanted to believe the words, but said them as much in desperation, just wanting to rouse Frank just enough to let them think their work was not wasted, “in fact! I can still feel them real close! I swear they are still here!”.

Bonnie’s words, while improvised, were not untrue: our little stuffie could still sense that their supposed “courageous maiden” was still nearby, but at the moment, nothing could really light a spark in Frank's heart. “I am going home”, he said while rising to his feet, hoping to just end this entire charade. He couldn't help, and that was the end of it.

“M-maybe we could do it tomorrow! I am sure everything here will be fine! There is danger ahead of course, but you can always try again if you fail!”, Bonnie, in spite of their earlier explosive anger, could not abide by the sight of the man's sheer disappointment and heartbreak at their failure.

“It's fine, it's just what happens with me,I deserve it at the end of the day”. For all their sincerity, their words could not quite reach Frank’s heart, resigned as it was to his supposed fate,

“It's just why I am alone at the end of the day, I can't help anyone”.

“...simple failure is no reason to be punished with loneliness”, Bonnie offered. If Frank heard, his turned back gave no sign of it, continuing to walk ahead, his mind seemingly being made up. Not being one to simply leave things be, the rabbit critter nonetheless followed them towards the lower floors and, shortly after, in the direction of the parking lot.

7:15 pm, in the aforesaid parking lot.

Katheine approached the doors of their car, shoulders aching and hands sore from typing after an even longer and more tiring workday than even she had grown used to.

“Uuugh, one extra hour I didn't want… at least it was only one this time…uuuugh”. Katheine wasn't one to do overtime unless she really needed to, and today was the one day she really could not afford to not do it, something that oooh, quite annoyed her.

The thing with being the helpful lady, the one that can be counted on, is that bosses will sometimes notice that.

And they will take advantage of you for doing so, your own wishes be damned. Being reliable has its problems.

Thankfully, she had managed it for now, grabbed her keys and was ready to enter her car and put the day behind her, hopefully a nice hot bath at home helping her recover…until a cold dread ran down her spine and the keys fell from her outstretched hand.

Something… felt wrong. The air was heavy, the lights were seemingly dimmer, and even though it wasn't cold, she suddenly couldn't stop shivering. Turning around suddenly and leaning her back against her car, she tried the handle - even with the keys on the ground she couldn't help but hope that somehow the door would open.

She didn't understand that fear, in fact, nobody in this place could. All that she could do was sit there and hear… hear the rattle, the sounds of something moving - something big, something that seemed to be coming from everywhere at once.

She heard and heard - slap! Thud! Rattle!... and within the unnaturally dimmed light that filled the lot she saw something.

Something she wasn't much prepared for.

Something she really didn't want to see.

But what she did want to do was scream.

7:15 pm, the same parking lot, nearby.

Tap.

The sounds of Frank’s shoes hit the floor, and echoed across the lot, hitting nothing but the occasional pillar, almost all signs of human life being long gone, all that was around was so much empty, nothing but the grey concrete of the ground and the walls.

Except for a bunny of stitches and cloth, Bonnie, trying their best to hop close to Frank, not quite content to leave them alone, to let them be alone.

It hopped, its short little legs struggling to not quite manage to keep up to the much taller man, but yet they kept going, the difficulty of keeping pace not crossing their mind, as more pressing, was the difficulty of speaking, of trying to find right words that could cheer up the person they felt at fault for making sad.

So they thought and thought, webs of dialogue coming through their mind, hoping to find the one right thread it could pull, and after much deliberation… they didn't find one. Realizing that, and in desperation to still help, they threw caution to the wind, and looking at the man, they puffed their chest, a meaningless action that nonetheless meant a lot to them, and they began to speak.

“He-” they didn't get far. Heck, they didn't even get a syllable in.

Somewhere close, there was a scream. A scream of fear.

Frank was there, and so Frank heard, and so Frank ran.

What surprised Bonnie was the direction. Within mere seconds of hearing that noise, Frank's previous dourness was gone, and so was Frank, breaking out in a mad sprint towards the direction of the noise. The sudden actions stunned Bonnie for a second, but the bunny creature wasn't quite allowed to catch a breath of the air it couldn't process, for it immediately sensed that scream was near what it feared was here.

Abstraction.

A tear in the real, trying its best to be real, magic and chaos combined and unleashed somewhere that could not contain it, that could not handle it, that could not accept it. A creature that, upon being forced to think, live and be, could do nothing but lash out, because what it was, it also wasn't.

“DON'T! YOU CAN’T HELP WITH THIS!”, words Bonnie didn't want to say, not to them, but that they had to, the life of frank riding on whether he could hear it. But Bonnie’s cry of warning went ignored, unheard, for all Frank could hear was the screams of someone in need.

They both ran, their legs being pushed to the limit, all to get there just a few seconds earlier, Frank racing to help someone, and Bonnie to stop Frank.

“DO NOT GET CLOSER TO IT! YOU ARE NOT A MAGICAL GIRL! YOU WILL DIE!”. No matter how Bonnie screamed, it didn't matter, they were getting closer and closer.

And at the moment they got there Frank saw who had screamed; it was Katheine. Someone he knew. Someone he depended on. And someone who was clearly terrified to a point that no one should ever be.

And Frank could see why, something was there with them, a thing of lines and shapes, of bark and flesh, concrete yet malleable, gnarled yet slick, and most frightfully of all, it could see Frank.

It could see all of Frank.

“RUN! I WILL HANDLE IT!” Those were the first words Frank could think of shouting, yet Frank knew he couldn't, that whatever this was, whatever it wanted, if he allowed it to catch him, he would die. But it didn't matter to him.

It never did. The words Bonnie said were true, but he didn't care.

He wasn't allowing Katheine be hurt, allowing anyone to be hurt, even if he knew he could do nothing, that what he was trying was impossible.

And it was - the moment he ran towards the thing, it swatted him aside like a bug, the air leaving his lungs, a cracking sound coming from inside him. It hurt like hell. But yet he got up again, and again, and again. He had to.

He turned towards Katheine and with a meek smile said, “it’s okay… you can run”.[1]

She did not. She attacked. A hopeless, desperate swing with her bag, thinking only to help the man who was bruised and bloodied, yet still standing. But what can a simple bag really do?

The creature turned to her, for as much as it could turn, or perhaps it was simply her realizing it never stopped staring at her, it never stopped staring at everything. As Frank could only look on as, Katheine finally decided to run, her courage finally running out.

With the sight of her making a mad dash away, her life still in danger, his attempt to help once again, amounting to nothing, his knees could only buckle, having spent more strength than they could spare. He fell, ready to close his eyes and call it a day, his last day, and let the cards fall where they clearly already had.

Turns out life still wanted to get one last hit in, one delivered directly to the face by a certain felt stitched hand. “DON'T! YOU! DARE! DIE!”.

Screaming even louder than they had screamed when they met, Bonnie shook the bleeding face of Frank, anger and worry across their own, but yet through it, a refusal to let things end this way. “YOU! I WAS DUMB ALRIGHT?! I SCREAMED AND SHOUTED, REFUSING TO ACCEPT THE TRUTH BUT IT WAS YOU!”.

Even while barely clinging to consciousness, Frank laid there, aching, on the floor and listened, hanging on every single letter enunciated like it was the one thing keeping them still alive.

“YOU ARE THE PERSON I WAS SEARCHING FOR! YOU ARE THE ONE COURAGEOUS MAIDEN! AND NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU REFUSE, NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU TELL ME AND EVERYONE AND YOURSELF, YOU ARE THE ONE WHO CAN HELP!”. Pulling out every ounce of strength its small body could muster, Bonnie grabbed Frank's hands together and unclenched their fists, marked with years of toil and abuse, and told them, “so please listen to me, and please don't give up, you don't need to let things end like this, you can still change! Please! Clutch to your heart, and get up! You can still be a hero, and you can still save yourself and everyone!”. Bonnie placed their own hands on Franks, and from within a spark of light started to shine, small at first but growing ever so slowly.

Frank looked to the spark they now held in their trembling hands, tears forming in their now swollen eyes, and with the strength they still had, they grasped it, bringing it close to their chest with one hand, and pushing themselves upright with the other, one last show of a strength that they didn't know they had, their tired voice managing to spit a few words. “I… don't give a shit about being a hero… I don't know if I can save anyone, least of all myself… but I can't stand here and just watch… I can't stand knowing someone needs help!”.

With their hands brought close to their still beating heart, Frank runs, faster than they could, all in the direction of the still fleeing Katheine, because, once again, they couldn't allow anyone to be hurt. And so the light grows, covering them, a bright spark of courage lighting up with each step - a spark of change.

Of transformation.

A beat starts silent

What I feel inside

Nobody else can hear

But I soldier on

Hoping to one day have a voice

Maybe those pulsations in my veins

Will finally bring a change

And maybe I will see

A future not so grim

For you and me

The fear deafens my ears

The hardships, the failure, and pain

But yet all I want

Is a hope to smile again

Hold onto those feelings

And clutch to your heart

Those silly little songs

Only it can sing

sometimes I want to close my eyes

never open then again

In the end I don't

Because I wont see you then

Let yourself breathe

And clutch your heart

Those vibrations in your body

Only you can share with me

Let yourself see

And clutch to your heart

Though the world may deny you

You are still free

I ask you

Clutch to your heart

And hold it tight

The light dissipates, as the flickering sparks land and fizzle out, the girl that was frank stands, clad in yellow and orange, shining in the dark by the light of the golden ribbons now adorning her, a crest of bright amber gleaming on her neck.

From where she now lay on the ground, Katheine looked towards them, all that they could muster being a simple “f-frank…”

Looking at the writhing, many branched thing in front of them with a feeling of renewed resolve, the yellow clad Maiden landed on the ground, and within a single step, launched themselves, into the air, bracing for imminent impact against their foe. BANG! The sound of that step is like a thundercrack, the air behind shifting and distorting as a vacuum is formed, a speed unlike anything in this world.

But if the many eyed menace couldn't respond they wouldn't be all that scary now would they? A limb launched at the Maiden through their left corner, each of its multiple eyes looking directly at her, focus unrelenting, in an effort to intercept them.

A futile attempt at the moment, for the yellow clad maiden simply smacked it down with an overhead slap, the gnarled, branch-like limb hitting the hard cement with loud THUMP! An impact that sends shockwaves across the floor, pillars and walls of the parking lot, the branch limb bouncing back towards its owner.

Mere seconds after, nay, not even seconds, she is within a hair’s breath of the thing with many eyes, eyes that swivel as one, turning their gaze from their previous prey - Katheine - and towards the yellow clad maiden, someone who they previously soundly defeated. As each eye shifted yet again, within a moment, that self-same maiden, clutching their hand into a fist, launched a crude, unpracticed uppercut towards the closest thing to a “head” in reach, the impact hurling it towards the ceiling with mighty speed.

The force of wood, or something like it, impacting against cement shook the building. From her hiding place behind her car, Katheine hunkered to the ground, in fear of the many limbed, bark-skinned thing, with the only noises made being whimpers of amazement at the feats of the yellow clad maiden.

“H-how…what is happening?!?”, Katheine let out the words under her breath.

All the thing could do was dig its many branch-limbs into the ceiling, clinging to it, their numberless eyes not breaking for a second from the yellow clad maiden.

Yet all she does is smile, her own eyes locked on it, and shout, “c'mon! You give me a thrashing and then get scared at a single punch? Get those twigs arms of yours up and fight!”. A proudness present in her voice, the meekness and doubt were once there when they were Frank, now gone.

And so the gnarled, wood eyed thing responded, crawling along the ceiling as fast as it could, and, upon having regained the advantage of distance, struck back, sending limb upon limb, lashing out in a cavalcade of attacks.

Bonnie, having finally reached the other three - their oh so short little stuffed legs struggling to catch up to the action - shouted with all their stuffed chest can muster, “Don't just use your hands against this! You have a weapon! Defend yourself!”.

The yellow clad maiden heard, and so, with another spark, another light, and another shining explosion, her hands dragging from that brightness a staff, forged in gold, headed by an amber heart, with two flags hanging from the sides of that heart. And in one uninterrupted motion, she swung her new staff, first to the right, one limb deflected, then to the left, another attack stopped, and with a final flourish upwards, an assault negated, her previous smile still reflected in the eyes of the horror’s limbs.

It shook! It trembled! and for the first time, the many limbed thing screamed, sound reverberating across its many branch-limbs, a cacophonous noise of wood-skin against wood-skin. Not content to let its failure stand, boiling with rage, the thing sent a new storm of limbs against the yellow clad maiden.

One! Two! Three! Four, five, six! Each limb beaten back, but the horror’s anger would not subside! It continued to attack from every direction, yet the maiden did not give even an inch of an opening.

“Haaagh! I can't get in!”. She continued to parry each attack, a stalemate forming between the two of them, for each limb swatted aside by the maiden, two more came to take their place, but yet for every limb sent forth, another was struck down by her staff.

“You fool! Punching and swinging is not all you have! Clutch to your heart again, it will guide you!" Bonnie shouted. It wasn't much, but it was the best hint that the bunny creature could muster at the moment.

“Alright! Here goes nothing!” The yellow clad maiden gripped her staff tightly, her last swing turning into a thrust, a thrust that launched the flags attached at the end of her weapon forward, each extending and twisting, circling against the limbs sent towards her, stopping them in their tracks in a web of flowing cloth that eventually reached into the body of the many eyed thing, which could only stare in anger it was bound together in place.

“What!? That was not the ability she was suppo-" Bonnie muttered to themself for just a second, but then the little bunny creature had to get down even closer to the ground as the maiden started swinging the eyeful, limbful thing around in great circles. ”W-what are you doing?”.

“Giant! Swing!” The yellow clad maiden spun and spun, whipping the captured foe about like a wrecking ball, the force of her spins creating a small cyclone around her, as she twirled the hapless horror into - and through- the upright cement pillars. ”Go!” Stopping mid turn, she threw it against the wall of the parking lot, and with a meaty SPLAT! It thudded against it, crumpling into a defenseless heap.

Time slowed down for it, each eye being jostled, twisted, and rocked within its limbs, the previous focus on the maiden being lost as each eye’s vision went cloudy, some becoming dark…

…the air screamed across what it called its ears… it felt for the first time in its existence, an existence that reality shouldn't allow, nothing but sheer confusion…

…and when it opened its eyes, the last thing it could see was the yellow clad maiden who it now feared, advancing towards it with a fist.

“Go to hell you bastard!” her arm hit home, striking the core of the gnarled, writhing, million eyed, bark-skinned thing, a clothesline that launches them both through the wall, exploding through its other side and cleaving the once terrible thing in twain from its impact, two halves flying through the air in a death spiral of flailing limbs

And so it ends.

The reality that it was supposed to have, one of non-existence, caught up to it, and the chaos that is being forced into a shape, ended, its form dissipating into the air as so many motes of black dust, eventually ceasing to be.

The abstraction now concrete.

8:10 pm, outside of the parking lot.

Outside of the Hammond equity building parking lot where the evening’s fight took place, a variety of cars and other vehicles gathered around, a gaggle of people and lights crowding the footpaths. Some were local news outlets trying to spin a story out of the noises and sudden unexplained explosion that occurred, some were all manners of police and fireman, one group trying to find any culprit who could have been able demolish large parts of the building, the latter trying its best to ensure the rest of the building wasn't also about to come down, multiple building supports and other infrastructure inside having been damaged or destroyed.

But on the other side of the street, as far away as they could possibly be, were frank and Bonnie, looking across at the ambulance that they had called, an effort to place Katheine under more capable care after the night's events.

“So, on the previous ‘modern’ Mirror I was on, there were these so-called ambulances and such, but this thing you used to summon it is quite peculiar…” Bonnie, once again inside Frank's overalls, popped over their collar, their thumbless felt hands trying their best to handle Frank's cellphone, “it's like a slab? It has buttons? Why does it have a hinge?”.

The moment they said that, the flip phone, well, flipped, the sudden popping causing Bonnie to almost drop it to the ground, and frantically scramble to catch it.

Despite Bonnie’s antics, Frank sat on their scooter in silence, their eyes fixed on the now departing Katheine, her expression of confusion and exhaustion still being visible even at this distance.

“She will probably be fine, in spite of just how much you wrecked the place, she seemed quite unharmed when I checked on her”, Bonnie told frank.

“I hope so.” frank grabbed his helmet and strapped it on their head, before kick-starting the engine of their scooter.

“Cheer up, you did nothing but a fantastic job today, Maiden.” Bonnie offered some words of encouragement to the previously yellow clad Maiden, all while attempting to unflip the flipped phone. ”In fact, I haven't yet asked your name, something I must apologize for”.

“O-oh my name, its uh, ali-, i mean, its frank? frank…”, frank replied, almost saying another name before stopping themselves.

“frank huh? And are you quite sure about that?” a puzzled Bonnie asked, before finally figuring out how to close the flip phone, “oh! I figured it out!”.

“W-what do you mean?” frank tried to dodge the question, but his words didn't sound convincing - to him or to Bonnie.

“Oh nothing, nothing, I am sure you will tell me and yourself the truth at some point”, yet, Bonnie indulges, “come, now I know these wheeled things can be used for transport, and both you and me more than need a bed to rest in, partner.”

“Partner, huh…” a smile formed on frank's face, and with that, they turned the accelerator, a journey home being in order.

NEXT TIME ON CLUTCH TO YOUR HEART:

Why do these flippy things make so much noise?!? They hurt my bunny ears!!! I barely got enough sleep and now there is another abstraction around!

What do you mean “frank” cant use her magical girl powers right? Aaaaagh, I knew her refusing her true self was gonna bite us in the behind!

And the abstraction is WHAT? ROUND? What do you mean just round? That's not a good description!!

Next time! “The tribulations of a young maiden's heart!”, be there or I will throw this loud brick on your head!