Magical Savior Shihoko
in:
Quitting Time
A day like any other in the downtown area of Kyoto.
Birds were singing. Bees were buzzing. And yet another youma was
running loose near the local grocery store. Fortunately for the
townspeople they were protected by Magical Savior Shihoko and the
magical heroes. They had style. They had grace. They... were getting
their butts handed to them.
“Owww,” Shihoko moaned as she skidded halfway across
the parking lot and into a lamp pole. The pavement was covered in a
thin coating of ice, courtesy of today’s monster, thus creating
traction problems.
She pulled herself to her feet, using the light pole
to keep her balance as Zandarius and Nadeshiko zipped past to dish out
some hurt to their foe. “Hit him... her.... it one time for me guys!”
she called.
“We’ll be lucky if we hit it once for ourselves,”
Nadeshiko muttered as she nearly lost her balance. “I wish Sakura was
here.”
“She’s doing the best she can,” Zandarius replied as
he sent them into a spin. “Fastball special on three.”
Nadeshiko grit her teeth as their rotational speed
increased. “Try not to miss,” she hissed, her spear materializing in
her hand.
“One... two... three!”
Zandarius released, hurling Nadeshiko at their
target. The youma created several walls of ice to protect itself, only
to have them shattered by the hero flying at it. “Freeze!” the youma
hissed, releasing a blast of arctic air.
“I think not,” a female voice said seconds before a
flaming hammer impacted in the youma’s face, stunning it long enough
for Nadeshiko to deliver her own grand impact.
Sakura landed nearby, the ice around her melting as
she touched the ground with her weapon. “Let’s take care of this
first,” she said, spinning her hammer around, the head bursting into
flames. “Fire Ocean!”
She smashed the head of her hammer into the ground,
flash melting the ice and drying the parking lot in a matter of seconds.
“Looks like we’re good to go,” Shihoko said, white
flames wrapping around her gloves. “Zan, double team on two.”
Zandarius nodded, his no datchi blade forming in his
hand. “Ready,” he said, darkness engulfing his sword.
Shihoko rushed at the youma, who was now shaking its
head to clear the cobwebs. It looked at the flash of silver coming at
it, then spotted the rush of black heading at it from the opposite
direction.
Shihoko was first to strike as she delivered a
powerful uppercut, her momentum taking her into the air. She gave
Zandarius a high 5 as he descended and sliced through their enemy, the
youma glowing before exploding in a shower of snowflakes.
“Dusted,” the catgirl said as the parking lot,
frozen customers, and frozen employees flash thawed of their own accord.
“I’ll get you magical heroes one of these days!”
Yuriren shouted before vanishing.
“As if,” Nadeshiko said as she and the other three
made a hasty retreat around the building to change back to their
everyday forms.
“Sorry about the last minute save,” Maho said,
pushing her long purple hair back from her face, her headband held in
her teeth, “I had to borrow Marge’s bike, which I should go and return
before she gets mad.”
“Or we could always ask Xan to take you back,” Lyssa
said, checking her watch. “Oh, hell, scratch that. All three of us are
late.”
Xander looked at his own watch and gave an eye roll.
“I was even on time for my break,” he grumbled as they trooped up the
sidewalk to the store. Near the time clock they found Sanderson, the
store manager, with Mikayla, the new front end manager. Neither looked
happy, though Mikayla looked like she sat on something unpleasant and
had it forever attached to her rear.
“How nice to find all of you together,” Mikayla
said, her tone ice cold. “I have a list of complaints against all of
you.”
‘Uh-oh,’ all three thought, ‘Not good.’
“Mister Kuronova, lately you’ve either been late
getting in, late returning from break, or vanishing during your
shift...”
Xander bit his lip to keep his mouth from firing off
scathing remarks or spilling the beans about their double lives.
“Miss Sanders, the same applies to you, as does
several customer complaints about your attitude...”
Lyssa’s eyebrow began to twitch out of annoyance.
She may not have been as peppy and perky as Tomiko and Tokiko, but she
didn’t think she’d been rude.
“Miss Shikoba, your attendance is shoddy, your work
ethics are non-existent, and your temper could use some work.”
Tara balled her hands into fists, the urge to go
with her feline instincts to claw this woman apart rising. All three of
them pictured themselves in their empowered forms using their strongest
attacks on Mikayla. Xander and Tara both stepped way from Lyssa as she
began to lose her cool, the emotion of pure rage palpable in the air
around her.
“Take this job seriously,” Mikayla continued,
“otherwise we’ll have to fire you.”
Three sets of eyes fastened upon Sanderson, who
tugged at his collar as he began to sweat. Nothing was said for several
beats.
Lyssa grumbled something as her mind began to snap,
her emotional broadcast online. Babies at registers 3 and 4 who had
been on their best behavior began to fuss before they started bawling,
their puzzled mothers shocked by the sudden change.
“Take this job,” she said, her volume rising, “and
shove it! I QUIT!!”
“Ditto,” Tara said, following behind Lyssa as the
other girl went to clean out her locker.
Sanderson and Mikayla looked at Xander, who shrugged
and handed them his name badge. “Hello. Good-bye. I am sooooo at the
mall.”
Mikayla beamed at Sanderson as three of his best
employees went to clean out their lockers and leave. She raised an
eyebrow when she saw him frowning at her. “What?”
Sanderson sighed and shook his head. “We’re going to
have a long discussion later about letting you talk to employees,” he
said as he retreated to his office to see about finding people to cover
the open shifts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“This is total BS,” Lyssa sputtered half an hour
later as they waited for their orders to arrive at the Crown
Café, “We’ve done how much for them and this is the thanks we
get?!”
“Lyssa, you’re broadcasting again,” Xander whispered
as people gave their booth a wide berth.
Lyssa looked around and blushed. “Sorry,” she
muttered as she fought to calm down.
“This is Queen Soi’s fault more than anything,” Tara
said as Lyssa took a sip of her soda, “if we didn’t have to fight her
monsters all the time we’d be able to concentrate upon our jobs and our
lives.”
“Would you trade your abilities to have a normal
life?” Xander asked as their waiter set their plates on the table.
Tara pondered for a few moments as she chewed on
some fries. “Not really,” she replied, “kicking monster butt is kinda
fun.”
“It’s a great anger outlet,” Lyssa added as she
broke her chunk of baguette apart and put the pieces in her salad. “So,
no for me.”
“Maybe this was for the best,” Xander said, “I mean,
would either of you want to grow old at the market?”
Lyssa and Tara pictured themselves as old women
still in the store’s uniform. “Nah,” they said in unison, both
shivering at the mental image.
Xander smiled at them. “Thought not,” he said with a
chuckle, “the next question is what do we do?”
“We eat and try to forget,” Lyssa replied, “then
we’ll see about getting new jobs.”
“Can we also talk shop?” Tara asked, “Because there
are a few things that really chap my ass about all of this.”
“Go for it,” Xander said, stealing a fry.
“Remember how we saved a lot of people the first
time we donned the armor?” the catgirl asked, “Just two of us were in
that first battle, and that resulted in a broken window and a smashed
register.”
“And gave you some nice bruises,” Lyssa added. Tara
sighed and winced, since the youma battle from earlier had left its own
mark on her behind.
“You saved Sanderson’s bacon that one time,” Xander
said, “and gained a Super level.”
“You saved Koichi and gained a boyfriend,” Lyssa
added, Xander blushing to the tips of his pointy ears.
“We’ve also faced all sorts of nasties,” Tara said
as she ate several more fries, “Like, tentacle things, a pizza,
cheerleaders, the queen’s personal guard...”
“Nothing is safe from the touch of Queen Soi’s evil
magic,” Lyssa said, “like, she could turn this salad into a monster if
she so desired.”
Xander and Tara both rolled their eyes. “Don’t give
her any ideas,” the catgirl groaned.
“Come to think of it, we fought a lot of these
things in the parking lot,” Xander mused, “Perhaps it’ll be a good
thing we no longer work there.”
“Doubt it,” Tara said, “so long as there is purity
out there Queen Soi will be on the hunt for it until the day we crush
her.”
There were three groans and eye rolls, since none of
them knew when that would happen. Tara poked at her burger before
snagging some of the caesar coated lettuce from Lyssa’s salad. Xander
sighed and poked at his sundae, his thoughts elsewhere.
“I hear the Book Nook is hiring” Koichi said as he
slid in beside Xander and gave the elf a kiss on the cheek. “Heard
about what happened at the store.”
“Oh bloody hell,” Lyssa sighed, pushing her salad
away, “I’m done.”
Koichi snagged a fork and began to finish Lyssa’s
salad. “They gave some of us the afternoon off and closed the store for
refreshing purposes, whatever the hell that means.”
“Means Sanderson is going to have a field day trying
to find replacements for the three of us,” Xander sighed, pinching his
temples as he felt a headache forming. “Bliss, joy, and rapture.”
“Well, there is one good note to it,” Koichi
continued between bites of salad, “Mikayla got a decent reaming out
from Sanderson before she was demoted to cashier, so the front end
management position is up for grabs.”
“Why don’t you go for it?” Tara asked, “You’d make a
great manager.”
Koichi blushed to the tips of his ears as he tried
to shrink. “I don’t think that would fly right now,” he said, “I’m
still in school, remember?”
“Well, when you graduate.”
“We’re in the same class. We still have another year
or so, or have you forgotten?”
Tara sighed and shrugged. “Only one of us here could
fill that role.”
“Nope,” Xander said, playing with his phone, “I’m on
the Book Nook’s site filling out an application.”
“I need to find something that will help me when I
graduate,” Lyssa moaned, “maybe take some courses at the tech.”
Tara snagged Xander’s phone and perused the
bookstore’s site. “Do they need café people who will look good
in a maid’s outfit?” she asked sheepishly, earning two eye rolls and a
forehead slap. “What?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Several days later a meeting was called to get
updates from all members of their hero group. Once again they met in
the diner, three of them with exciting news.
“I’ve been hired as a full time seller at the Book
Nook,” Xander beamed.
“And I’m part time in the café there,” Tara
added.
“Xander’s parents hired me to work afternoons in the
noodle shop,” Maho added, blushing, “so after sewing club until the
dinner rush is done.”
“Too busy with the dojo to get a part time or even
temp job,” Tsukiri sighed, “though Lyssa is now running the front desk
and billing functions.”
“I’m waiting to hear from digital dreams,” Max
sighed, blowing bubbles in his soda.
“No time for work, but the cheering squad had made
me their co-captain,” Reiko beamed, “so it’s all good.”
There was silence for a few moments as they ate.
Xander finally asked the question that was on everyone’s mind. “Is it
just me, or has Queen Soi and company been unusually quiet since we
kicked Yuiren’s butt?”
“It’s almost like she was taking a few days to
herself while we tried to get our affairs in order.”
“It’s sort of creepy if you ask me,” Maho said,
“Like, do you think she’s massing her forces for an all out attack on
earth?”
“With what energy?” Tara asked, “we keep kicking her
monsters’ butts before they’re able to amass enough energy to do
anything crucial.”
The catgirl gazed out the window, her eyes going
wide, her tail going bushy as she spotted a tidal wave rushing down the
street. “Looks like they’re right on cue,” she said as Xander signaled
for their check.
“It’s show time,” Tsukiri said as they handed the
waitress the money for their bill as well as a sizable tip and a note
that they’d be back for the leftovers.
They dashed out of the diner and down an alley,
seven gems shining as they focused their thoughts on the task at hand.
“Transform!”
-End