Chapter Text
Her eyes were still closed, but she was still able to feel many little sensations of the world outside her little cocoon. A small amount of heat emanated from the sun coming through the window, though the room was quite chilly, even with the window closed and curtains drawn, the cold still did its best to invade her safe space. The incredible warmth of herself underneath a fluffy blanket and with the arms of her friend wrapped around her served well to stave off any negative outside sensation.
She willed her eyes open to survey the situation. Kiwi was still nuzzled up close to her face, but she stretched her neck around the other direction as much as she could, while she was unable to turn her body, to gaze upon her alarm clock and the calendar.
It was now… actually it should be Saturday now, but the day hadn't been marked off yet, it was officially the weekend, and since her mom was still out on her business trip, not returning until Monday morning, Utena had absolutely no obligation to be getting up anytime soon.
Except… she couldn't reach the alarm clock, she was already getting flashbacks to just two nights ago, sure she had to go to school that day anyways, but it was still annoying to simply sit there and watch the clock tick the minutes away until she had to get up and get going, the blaring sound waking her cuddle buddy up so they had to move out from their spot.
She tried her best to reach for the device, stretching further than she ever has before, bare skin escaping the comfort of fabric and embrace to enter the oh-so-dangerous mild chill of the space in between herself and the alarm clock. Eventually, her arm reached the corner of the clock, her fingers pulled it slightly closer and she succeeded in pushing the buttons necessary to mute the alarm for this day. Utena thought she succeeded, but then Kiwi behind her stirred up…
"Uweeehhh… Uteehna-chuuwaaann… whaatcha doin…?"
Dang it! I specifically wanted to avoid waking Kiwi up! I moved too much and disturbed her, didn't I?
"Ahhh nooo… I wanted to turn off the alarm to not wake you up… I'm sorry Kiwi-chan…"
"Ehhh? Ihts No prollemmbuh…"
Kiwi definitely doesn't seem like a morning person, she's really cute when she is like this though…
"Here, let's get back under the covers until you're all the way awake, okay?"
"Awwiiiighttt thheenn…"
"Heya! How are you two…"
"...Weh?"
"Harnk?!"
Coming out of a small and smokey hole in reality, an unwelcome visitor entered the room. The creature gazed upon the two naked girls that were only half-covered under a blanket, its facial expression unchanging, it soon began to speak.
"Sorry to interrupt you two, but Tres Magia is planning a little event soon, I think it's something we should prepare for! Our first attack in - !"
"Nah, f*ck off."
Kiwi sat up, clearly annoyed, and also clearly unbothered by her own lack of coverage, she stood before Venalita let her mind be known.
"I don't plan on lettin' Utena fight again until I'm 100% certain she's all good and happy and not gonna come crying to me at midnight."
"I understand that, but -"
"ALSO… Don't interrupt cuddling time with me and Utena again."
Venalita, still with an unfazed expression, seemed to accept the situation.
"I see."
"Well then."
Kiwi balled her hands and rested them on her hips, and quietly manifested her Derringer pistol in one of her hands, from the position that Venalita was in, it would have been hidden behind her body, but regardless of this, Vena simply took a small pause, perhaps sensing the gradually increasing threatening aura from Kiwi, and spoke.
"... Have a good day you two! See you later."
The creature produced another bubbly and swirly portal and made its leave through it. Kiwi sighed and turned back to Utena.
"I had a feeling that f*ckle-shmuck was gonna appear sooner or later to cause problems, I swear, that squeaky sh*t's got a thing for interrupting important moments with us."
Utena was… somewhat taken aback by Kiwi's protection, just now and from yesterday, Kiwi's had somewhat of a motherly attitude, which was something she hadn't ever thought of her, Utena felt very well taken care of, at least.
Seeing a lazy, sleepy, cuddly Kiwi was a kind of adorable seen from kittens… and even further back, seeing a beaten, dirty and bruised Kiwi on the group at her mercy was a kind of pathetic cute, which is why she leaned over her to coddle her for a little time… and that in turn gave us a lovey-dovey Kiwi that was super attached to Utena, and loved both getting attention and giving attention to her…
…and now we have yet another side to Kiwi that Utena hadn't expected to see, Kiwi doing her best to protect and care for Utena…
For several moments, Kiwi stood, looking somewhat ridiculous being naked yet standing proudly, having repelled the annoying interruptor of cuddling times. However, when she turned around to face Utena again, she seemed to begin shivering in place before suddenly shouting.
"LEMME BACK IN!!!"
And she quickly dived from her position, back onto the bed, where she floundered around rapidly until she was back under the covers coddled up with her beloved Utena. Her cold limbs felt uncomforting at first, but they quickly warmed up again together in their precious little bed.
"Uweehhhh… it's cold! I don't like the cold season!"
"Really…? I kinda like winter… makes me appreciate the indoors warmth a lot more… sitting next to the fireplace… drinking hot chocolate… we get to enjoy great cozyness!"
"Actually… yeah… I getcha! It gives us an excuse to keep cuddling like this, riiiight?!"
"Well, we can stay here a little while longer… but I did want to actually do some stuff today… but we'll get going when you feel like it, okay?"
"Awight~!"
And so it was, more time spent underneath the covers, softly pressed into each other.
"Say, Kiwi…"
"What?"
"You were… hmm…"
"What is it, Utena-chan?"
"It's just…"
"...ehm…"
"You were really… cool…? Shutting down Vena like that… even if you were… just kinda naked doing that…"
"Hehehe, ye think so?"
"You've been… unexpectedly helpful as of late… aaahhh not that that means you aren't normally useful or anything like that!!"
"Then whud is it~?"
"It's just… I haven't seen this side of you before, kinda acting like some kinda caretaker to me, all throughout yesterday, I mean…"
"Huehuehuehue~! Though I would rather be mommy'd by you, I have the capability to recognize when my Great and Noble Leader is in need of some love and affection~!"
"You just need to consider me as…"
"Your Evil, Emotional-Support Henchwomen™!"
Utena smiled at Kiwi's great declaration.
"What, is that your new title?"
"If you want it to be."
"Then it shall be so!"
Utena did her best to do the dramatic 'I dub thee' motion with an imaginary sword on Kiwi's shoulders, though it was a little awkward to do with both of them lying side-by-side, but it was successful, and Kiwi bowed her head in response.
"Then, shall we get to lazing around, my liege?"
"Let us commence forth!"
Kiwi took out her phone, and together, they idly wasted their time watching random videos, her head nestled on the side of Kiwi's, right arm simply limp underneath Kiwi's back while her left arm wrapped around her, pressing slightly into her soft tummy, nestled underneath her weighty bosoms, which of course, were being used as the stand for the phone, stood up on the edges of the mounds while being prevented from slipping down by her collar bone. Kiwi's left arm wrapped around Utena's waist, hand resting around her belly button, while her free right hand manipulated the phone.
Utena mired in how simultaneously lewd and wholesome this position was, amazing comforts being provided by what was basically a human pillow she could rest upon. The first video loaded up on the phone, and they got to binging the internet to waste their precious time.
First, some guy talking about some obscure rifle design, a strange and bulky looking thing with a big built-in silencer, an anime about girls in tanks participating in a sports competition, somehow not getting hurt with the way the tanks get launched around, whenever they are shot. Utena felt a little disinterested, but she did her best to watch whatever Kiwi put on, but at some point, Kiwi seemed to notice her indifference, and switched up to random Magical Girl stuff, though then, it was now Kiwi's turn to be a little disinterested in what's on screen.
… amidst all this idle watching, it did get Utena zoned out slightly from the battle on screen.
Matama had her magical powers themed around her singing, and she has been singing since her childhood… a similar case for Nemo, who was supposedly somewhat shy, hiding in the shadowy places, up until meeting Matama… and there was Korisu, who of course, is an actual child, and thus, her power became themed around playing with toys and such…
…so then… is this how Kiwi has her gun-and-bomb themed powers? But she doesn't make this stuff a part of her personality much, nary a mention of this or that regarding this stuff outside of battle. Maybe it's just 'cause she's trying to be cute and stuff in day to day life? Maybe it's worth asking sometime later…
Utena checked the time, 7 PM. She was beginning to feel a little hungry, and it looked like the video currently playing on Kiwi's phone was about to come to an end, it looked like it was time to get up and do something.
"After this episode ends, you wanna get something to eat? I was also thinking about going and looking at flower seeds to get once winter ends, I have plans to plant more flowers around the side of the school."
"Sounds good! Where to then?"
"How about… I dunno actually… there is that Tres Magia event thing…"
Utena pulls out her phone, checking Snitter to try and quickly find out when it's going to happen.
"Looks like it's gonna be… well, days from now… so we've got some time until that happens…"
"Then, let's go to a Cafe! I know a pretty good one that's got cheesecake, if you want some more of that stuff."
"Alright then, let's get dressed, why don't we?"
They both got up out of the comfort of the covers, got into their clothes as quickly as possible, and together, Utena went to the bathroom to brush her teeth, and Kiwi followed. She pulled out a toothbrush, and Kiwi made a lewd remark about sharing the same brush, but this was dashed through when Utena simply pulled out a spare brush from a drawer, and handed it to her.
Covering themselves up further in sweaters, together, Utena left the front door of her house, into the chill of what is now becoming winter, with Kiwi leading the way to the Cafe.
Casually walking together through the near-completely transitioned weather in between Autumn and Winter, Utena finds that this is the moment she needs to ask Kiwi about her personal interests, specifically all the military stuff she seems to be interested in.
"Hey… Kiwi?"
"Wassup?"
"How… interested are you in that military stuff? I've never seen you make that stuff a part of you too often, I mean, your power is completely themed around those guns and bombs, but outside of battle you seem to just acknowledge it… Loco Musica is completely themed around her music and singing and stuff, Nero Alice also really likes her toys and her dolls and playhouses and stuff… So what's wrong?"
"Ehhh… I just… that stuff isn't really 'cute', ya know?"
"Hmm?"
"Like, all the time, I was trying to get people to pay attention to me online, so I was postin' photos of me doin' trendy stuff, posing how I thought was cute, it felt nice to have people talk nice about me, ya know?"
Utena nodded along to Kiwi's explanation.
"And basically, most people I interacted with, just didn't share that, like, when I tried to talk about it, they were either just… indifferent, or even got a little weirded out by it."
Utena could totally understand how Kiwi feels with this, it was always frustrating for herself when she really wanted someone to nerd out about this stuff too, and that person simply didn't care, didn't listen, or just outright shut her down.
"So, I didn't talk about that stuff, just kinda left it all to be something I kept to myself about, still trying my best to appear the way I want to look… but when I'm Leopard, I get to go all out, ya know?! Throw bombs this way, shoot a cannon round that way, it's so much fun!! I'm the f*cking C.E.O. of Blowing sh*t Up™!!"
She didn't think Kiwi had the capability to gush over things the way herself did… but it made sense now. Come to think of it, Sulfur is pretty similar, huh? Well not completely, but similar enough in a certain sense. Sulfur typically wears a mask in public as the little kind princess she is, but in combat, well specifically, combat outside of public view, she gets to be much closer to her brutish, battle hungry self. So Kiwi is hiding part of herself away because of how she wants to be perceived as well…
"I'm sorry… Kiwi…"
"Hrnk? What?! Nanananana this ain't some kinda childhood 'Wagh I was bullied!' or 'Wagh I was lonely!', I just kinda… didn't really get to talk about my interests, so I didn't."
They passed by a familiar little playground on their way to the shopping district, and someone they recognized came into view.
"Yo, it's Korisu-chan!"
The little girl instantly perked up and the sound of her two friends calling her name, she hopped up off the bench with her toys and rushed towards the girls, and stopped in front of them. She paced side to side in front of her, and looked slightly nervously at the two toys in her arms, her lady doll and the fighting robot, which Utena interpreted as 'Ope, I can't hug her because I have stuff in my arms', and so, she herself leaned down to hug her instead, all little disappointed the previous conversation was dropped on the spot.
"How are you, Korisu-chan?"
"Hey~! Whuds the Mistress of Catnaps up tah?"
Korisu shot her a blank glance with an aura of mild annoyance, which Kiwi paid no mind to, before turning to nuzzle her face to press into Utena again.
"Hey, we were just going to find a place to get breakfast, you wanna come with us?"
The child nodded enthusiastically, and so they became a trio.
They traveled some more, making distance towards their desired destination, but Korisu seemed to effectively attach herself to Utena, walking slightly awkwardly with one armed wrapped around hers while the other held the two toys as best they could.
"Korisu, are you… still worried about me?"
She nodded affirmatively.
"Look, I'm fine now… really!"
"I gave her lots of nice cuddles… Nay-Ked!"
Korisu seemed to freeze up, likely calculating what the hell kind of face she needs to make, before first, shooting Kiwi the best confused "Whot de hell?" face, and second, turning to Utena with a similar but not more concerned version of the same face.
"Awawawa-Kiwi!! Don't embarrass me like that!!"
"Whaaaatt?!"
Utena quickly glanced around… looks like no one was close enough to hear that. She sighed with relief. Korisu's expression remained the same as she backed up from Utena, landing in the middle of them and watched as they both stopped to converse.
"What if people heard that about us?"
"Uweehh?! How much duz it matter? You already know that I know how to deal with people causin' problems with ya. No matta what, cuddling is really cute and fun!! And besides, I wasn't that loud…"
"Uh… didn't you cause the battle at the beach by standing up for me?"
"I kinda accidentally transformed for that, sowwy, but regardless of that, that fight was a lot of fun anyway, right?"
"Well, yeah… that's true."
"Hey! Don't worry about it, Utena-chan! We gyat- Uweh?! What?!"
Korisu pulled on Kiwi, and pointed to a location a short way down the street, both her and Utena turned and quickly identified the establishment the little girl wanted to direct them too.
"Oh! The fancy old restaurant!"
"That place? We went there yesterday though!"
Korisu put off an energy of mild annoyance again, and simply tugged at Kiwi again, further motioning to the locale.
"Well, hey! It's breakfast time, so… we could probably get different food this time, like pancakes!"
"Awwight then… but if that sh*tty short girl is there too I'm gettin' outta there, okay?!"
"Oki, let's go then!"
And so it was, Utena and Kiwi entered the restaurant for the second time, with an additional friend.
They had just gotten seated, and for a place they had only visited once before, somehow, Utena already felt nostalgic being here, maybe it was just how old everything seemed, the wooden construction combined with warm lighting and the old timey music… already, she found herself idly listening to the song on the jukebox again…
When Madame Pompadour
was on a Ballroom floor
Said all the gentlemen "Obviously…
…the madam has the cutest…
Personality!"
And think of all the books
about Du Barry's looks
What was it made her the toast of Paree?
She had a well-developed…
Personality!
What did Romeo
see in Juliet?
Or Figaro, in Figarette?
Or Jupito, in Juno?
…You Know!
Their food had arrived, Korisu sitting next to Kiwi, trying to pose her doll and robot together on the window sill, while Utena sat on the other side of the booth by herself, the song of the restaurant changed into something slow and relaxing, and they all dug in. Utena felt a little bit… needy for a conversation, her throat ached to talk about something, anything really, but while she was already searching her brain for a talking point, up until…
"Ack, why the HELL is there lettuce on my chicken sandwiches?! Now I gotta… take… all this off…"
"You don't like lettuce, Kiwi?"
"Ahhh yes, I love having something with none of the same consistency as anything else in my sandwich - in my sandwich, I definitely love biting into a nice soft bun with chewy meat and slick ketchup and some cheese under it and experiencing a friggin CRUNCH alongside it all, completely ruining the chomp - AGH!"
Korisu dug her hand into Kiwi's side to interrupt her lettuce-hating rant, shooting her an annoyed look.
"Hrrng, What?! I was just tellin' Utena… actually yeah… sorry for being all sarcastic and mean about that… but anyway, I DO hate lettuce. It's just… the worst topping ever… food for people who wanna PRETEND to be healthy."
And again, Korisu attacked Kiwi for her statements, this time lifting up the side of her shirt and pinching her side, revealing the slight chub that the shortish girl has, her soft skin moulding like dough as Korisu demonstrated Kiwi's very pillowyness.
"Ack, stop that kid! This little chub just makes me that much better for cuddling! I'm a damn full-size body pillow, ya see!"
Kiwi swatted away the child's harassing and invasive hands, before grabbing her own little pudge to take the critique and claim it as her positive trait, though it wasn't the kind of fat that hung off the body so unappealingly, it was obvious she was pretty soft. Soon, Korisu relented and turned back to her playthings. She pulled her shirt back down, and with attention drawn to it Utena realized something.
"Ehrm, Kiwi-chan, haven't you been wearing that shirt for quite a few days now? Feels like 3 or 4 now…"
"Uhh? No I haven't? Hehehehe…"
"Uh, what do you mean by that?"
"So uhh, heheh, funny story… I have, like, 7 of just this shirt alone…!"
Kiwi was somewhat giggly as she seemed to go back through the memories, looks like they're nostalgic for her… she pulled out her shirt and looked down on it to better, a one-color design on the black primary color of the cloth, the blood red image was of a girl in Samurai Armour, a big bow on the back of her head, and firmly on holstered sword, some parts of the set had gaps where she could see what was very likely skin underneath, and if that were the case, the girls clothing was quite lewd. A very small branding photo features a tank next to it...
"What, really?"
"Yeah!"
"Well it's not a long story… but it's funny to me!"
Kiwi took a sip of her chocolate shake before talking again, Korisu also stopped fiddling with her toys to pay attention for a little bit.
"So what had happened was… my cousin, uhh… she'd used to work at uhh, a Trendy clothes store right? For like 5 years, she worked there and uhhh, when she quit her job… she just friggin… hehe… like… hehehahahah… took like, 20 of just this shirt alone on her way out… hehehe… literally just 'Can I have like 20 of these shirts that didn't sell too well?' and the bossman was just like 'Sure, whatever!' … hehehehe… and now I've got some of them too… hehehe…"
Kiwi put her face in her palm, still giggling constantly as she finished reciting the story. Korisu rolled her eyes at this.
"So friggin dumb… hehehah…"
"I see… that is pretty fun."
"I know right? I think she went and took them when I was like 4 years old, so these are all practically ancient."
"Wow…"
"Now why would someone in your family ask for free stuff?"
"I know, right?"
And when Salome danced
and had the boys entranced
No doubt it must have been easy to see…
…that she knew how to use…
…her Personality!
A girl can learn to spell
and take dictation well
and never to sit on the boss's sette…
…unless she's got a perfect…
…Personality!
A girl can get somewhere
in spite of stringy hair
or even a bit bowed at the knee…
…if she can show a faultless…
…Personality!
"Hehehehehe… I think I know what this song is all about…"
"What… is it about?"
"Personalities? Like… "Personalities~?!"
"What do you…?"
Kiwi lifted her chest puppies up with the back of her hands, and bounced them around gently.
"Personali-titt*es!
"Oh my god…"
Utena dropped her face into her palms, the bad joke elicited yet another jab in the side from Korisu, flashing a look of annoyance, which caused Kiwi to swivel back to her and bark "What, what's your problem?! It's kinda funny!! Don't blame me, blame the song!!"
Utena quickly realized, with the end of the previous conversation, this was her opportunity to ask Kiwi about her interests again, it was worth the attempt now.
"Hey, Kiwi-chan?"
"Yeah? What it be?"
"You said… about the military stuff… you were interested, but people didn't seem to listen to you about it, right?"
"Uh… yeah?"
"Well… I want to hear you talk about that stuff!"
"Erm… well…"
"Like… what about your favorite… tank?"
"Ah, that would be the Leopard! Leopard 2A5 TVM, specifically."
"That's… your…?"
"Well yeah, my uh, 'alternative name', came from this!"
Kiwi quickly pulled out her phone, rapidly tapped upon it, and turned it to Utena. A photo of a tank on it, which she presumed quite obviously should have been the tank that Kiwi was referring to. It had a bit of a stark appearance, looking exceptionally modern, the front of the turret consisting of two sharp angles forming into a ridge, little clusters of tubes at the corners of said turret, and the hull itself was sleek and low to the ground. It bore an icon of a that she vaguely remembered, should have been of Germany.
"Looks cool don't it?! I think all the Leopard tanks look great but this one is particularly neat lookin'!!"
"I suppose so… can you tell me about it?"
"Ahh well…"
"What is it?"
"It's just - I doubt it's worth the time, I don't think you would be interested in that thing…"
Utena huffed and pouted just a little bit, it felt more like Kiwi didn't want to open herself up, being nervous, or uncomfortable, to talk about her own interests…
Why are certain girls,
offered certain things,
like sable coats,
and wedding rings?
By men who wear their spats right?
…That's right!
So dontcha say I don't
have the kindest heart
or what a wonderful sister I'd be…
Just tell me how you like my…
(Rrrrrrufff!)
Personality~!
…well, there was a time when I was the same way, if Kiwi wasn't going to open up on her own…
Then maybe I'll have to open her up?
"Well… how about we finish our food, and we get going again? There's some shopping I wanted to do today…"
"Hey, am I the mom or you the mom?"
Korisu shot her a glance with a blank face.
"What? If were all walking there as a trio, it'll be like parents takin' their kid out!"
And the kid in question recoiled back, face slightly taken aback, she likely wasn't fully sure what to respond with. Slowly, the child turned back towards the window to her toys and food.
"Hmmhmm~! Alright, sounds like a good plan, Utena-chuwan!"
"Heheh… alright…"
"A wild couple has been spotted!"
"Heh?"
"Look!"
They were making their way towards the closest supermarket, but as they passed the wide open entrance of an arcade, Kiwi directed the attentions of Utena and Kiwi towards two of their comrades, locked in a heated battle against two other challengers.
"Come on! Let's watch them duke it out!"
Motioning towards the small crowd of four in front of a machine, some kind of fighting game. Matama, with Nemo watching over her shoulder, was engaged in battle with Haruka, with Kaoruko watching over the opposite shoulder. As Utena and Kiwi approached behind all of them, a short distance away so as to not be noticed in the heat of their combat, the events on the screen became clear.
"SCORCHING WAVE!!"
"SCORCHING WAVE!!"
"SCORCHING WAVE!!"
"SCORCHING WAVE!!"
"KILL HER ASS PLEASE! I DO NOT WANNA SEE ANYONE ELSE DO THIS."
A tall and buff delinquent-looking person on the left with an oversized sword was repeating the same ranged attack with a burst of flames emitting from the ground in a shockwave towards a Magical Girl on the right, which Utena quickly identified as Magia Blanc, a pang of emotion hit her, a mixture of Nostalgia and Melancholy, both remembering the cute girl in her career and knowing she was one of the ones gone missing during the Lord's Hunt. Though briefly saddened, she was quickly redirected back to the events on screen with the shouting from the contenders.
"Stop spamming that same move!"
Magia Blanc was quickly able to close the distance, hopping over the ranged attacks to start engaging the delinquent in melee, rapidly achieving victory with the bright 'KNOCKOUT!' announcement.
"Thank god it's over…"
"YOU TAUGHT HARUKA HOW TO PLAY LIKE A BITCH! I DON'T WANNA SEE THAT KINDA GARBAGE AGAIN!"
"Hehehehe! Ye did good Haruka-han!"
"I don't feel like I did good… I'm sowwy Matama-san… Nemo-san…"
"Alright, trade with me girl, I've got this."
The blonde traded places with the tearing-up pinkette, and chose a new character, Magia Sulfur, while Matama simply chose Magia Blanc again.
They entered battle again.
Almost immediately, Sulfur was being trapped in the corner by Matama's relentless pressure, looks like she's gotten at least a little bit of skill, but when Sulfur was able to jump over Blanc and trap her in the corner, suddenly, the White-Haired Hero was launched vertically by a powerful kick, then, a complex-looking flurry of low-damage jabs and punches juggled her in the air, gliding up and down the left side of the screen, leaving her victim with seemingly absolutely no way to counterattack.
"HELP, HELP! HEEEELP!"
"God damnit, Kaoruko! Where the hell did you learn to do that?! Shame on you!!"
"NOOOOO!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
"KNOCKOUT!!"
"Okay, I'm done… I'm… done…"
"Huh, really?"
"I just - don't wanna play anymore after that…"
"Heheheh… Alright then, you up to fight, Kaoruko?"
"Totally, come on."
Nemo swapped positions with Matama, patting her on the back as she skulked to the side to watch, along with Kaoruko, they reached the character-select screen. Nemo hovered over Magia Azur, and Kaoruko swapped off from Sulfur and hovered over a different character, but then… Nemo moved to hover over a different character, and Kaoruko moved to hover over one more. Nemo locked in as one character, but then immediately backed out as her opponent also locked in, quickly slotting over to Azur again before also locking in her selection. With both of them "Ready", the game transitioned to battle.
"Dammit!"
"Haha~! I saw what you were trying to do there!"
While Nemo had selected Magia Azur, Kaoruko ended up with some kind of Evil Magical Girl. On opposite sides of the screen, there was the elegant Magia Azur on the right, and then there was this other, somewhat short lady in a military uniform on the left…
… she didn't actually resemble Kiwi super closely, but Utena suspected she might have been based on her based on her stature and theme. Short, fiery red and wavy hair streaming out from under an officer's cap, with the coat of her uniform trailing down, long enough such that it drags on the ground. The character had a slumped stance with one hand resting in a pocket while the other had a clipboard held. A small army of toys circled around her, little tiny tanks and armoured vehicles pooled around her feet while helicopters and jets orbited around her upper body, looking as though they were manifested by herself, and were likely controlled by her as well.
With that, the screen split in half to reveal the same characters on the battlefield, some kind of ancient chinese-looking marketplace.
"Doesn't the girl on the left kinda look kind of like you, Kiwi?"
"She does! Hrrng…"
"She looks pretty cute."
"Heheh, really? Is that just your way of indirectly telling me you think I'm cute?"
"Something like that…"
"Hehehe~!!"
An announcer from the game machine counted the contenders down, and the match got going.
"Now watch, Matama, as I bait a flashbang."
The military girl threw a flashbang, exactly as Nemo predicted, which Azur parried the attack before swiftly exploiting the mistake.
"That was supposed to be a Crackshot!"
"BAITED!!"
"NooOOOO!!"
This early into the match, Nemo already has Kaoruko in a complex-looking combo, the Blue Hero slashes in many different patterns, eventually turning into a spiral… that somehow misses, as the Military character jumps out of the way in mid-air.
"Hah! You messed up!"
As they both landed on the ground, Azur tried some kind of low-to-the-ground swipe right as she hit the ground, which the Kiwi-lookalike was able to block.
"You piece of sh*t!!"
"I tried to do the funny dance…"
"Gee, fighting games are really fast, huh?"
"Plenty are, almost all are at least middling in pace I think."
"Okay here's what I'm gonna do - Medium chop, Medium chop, Medium chop…"
"AGH WATCHOUT NEMO!"
"DAAAAYUM!!"
"Now don't jump, Nemo!"
"WAGH!!"
"I know it's pretty scary but DON'T STAY ON THE FLOOR EITHER!"
"DAMNIT KAORUKO!!"
"Hold on, Haruka, why're you tryna help Nemo?!"
"Eh?! Cause she's the Magical Girl, and you're the evil one?"
"Ahhahahha!!" "Heheheh…!" "hehehee~!!"
"I've been done so dirty…"
The speed of the brawl was a little overwhelming to Utena, it wasn't far off from a cartoon battle in a dust cloud, she turned to see both Kiwi and Korisu watching the fight with some intense anticipation, little motions of reaction to whenever one character or the other succeeds or fails at complicated movements and powerful attacks.
While both parties were bleeding their health, Kaoruko's character was being whittled away much more quickly, while Nemo wasn't necessarily losing, she was also playing somewhat recklessly, rushing in to deal damage while losing health as well, but every time she attacked, she came off having dealt more damage to the enemy than she did lost health.
"Who are you rooting for, Kiwi?"
"I dunno… I wanna root for the girl that looks like me… but that would mean rooting for the little sh*t playing as her."
"Heh, really?
"I would say… she better not bring dishonor upon that character… but she already has been with her ratty-ass tactics."
"Huh…"
Watching the ongoing conflict, she could see why. The Evil character would stay on the far side of the screen, alternating between only two attacks, one where she briefly summons rocket pods behind her that would launch the projectiles up off screen, before they would come down upon the enemy, and the other where a little line of tanks appeared at her feet and would drive all the way across from left to right, presumably damaging the opponent if they were to run into them.
Magia Azur would rapidly try to close the distance between them, while the still unidentified Military girl would constantly back up to make more space for herself, laying little landmines all the while. Eventually, Kaoruko ran out of space on her side of the stage, and couldn't back up any further, in which case, the Heroine took the opportunity to close the jaws on the cowardly-playing menace.
"Rapid Slash!"
"God dammit…"
"Keheheh!"
Kaoruko took her hands off the buttons of the machine for a few moments to just rest her head on her hand, watching her character get comboed relentlessly."
"I love this character."
"I bet you do…"
"I love Rapid Slash… I love the free open-up button."
Soon enough, the pummeling ended as Kaoruko's fighter was punted into the air, and as she landed on the ground, a bright shine transitioned into what seemed like a short cutscene.
"f*ck you, I'm playing Erika."
A huge tank drove up from behind the character, she grabbed on the the cannon barrel and flipped on top of it, moonwalking as the tank advanced forward so she seemed to remain perfectly still in the of the screen, until reaching where the barrel met the turret, where she back flipped and landed in a circular hatch, remaining half stuck out, before seemingly 'commanding' the vehicle forward again by pointing roughly towards the screen in an imposing way, where the game transitioned back into play.
"f*ck you, I'm playing Azur!"
"MOTHERf*ck-"
Anemo Nemo claimed victory with a somewhat underwhelming counterattack move, at least in comparison to the brief cutscene that was spared for the enemy, she simply got a quick action shot and pose before suddenly she was rapidly appearing all over the screen, leaving behind watery slashes all the while, the tank exploded and the girl riding it, now known as 'Erika', fell to the ground.
"KNOCK OUT! WHAT A FIGHT!"
"Gotcha, nerd!"
"You had 5 meters! Why'd you do the Light Special?!"
"You ain't worth the bar!"
Kaoruko threw up her hands, and waved them around with balled fists, looking like she wanted to punch or smash something, but in the locale of the arcade, she would most assuredly get in trouble for breaking anything, so she resigned to simply slumping over in defeat. Nemo on the other hand, had worked quite the seat, she looked… exceptionally happy, she dropped to the ground on her knees, and threw her fists into the air in a dramatic display of victory, that shark-toothed girl looked like she had the best time of her life there…
"Yeah! f*ck you little bitch! Get sh*t on!"
"WHAT?! When the hell did you get here?!"
"Hey, Hey! Calm Down! Don't get too loud! There are people here y'know!"
"Sorry…"
"Hehe~! Kaoruko-chan~! You lost hard!"
"I did beat her pretty bad."
"Oh, shut the hell up, sugar tit*, you didn't do anything."
Kaoruko gazed upon Kiwi and Utena, while Korisu went over to Haruka to receive some headpats.
"You draggin' Utena around for fun again? Does she even like you?!"
"No, They're pretty close, aren't they?"
"Friends at least…"
"Oh, shut up! She's the wun who cawwed me to hew howse to cuddle<3~!
Everyone present snapped their head around, except Korisu, who already head of this.
"Huh? That - what?!"
"Really? Is that true?!"
Utena's face instantly flushed a bright fire-alarm red, rushing blood made her face feel on fire, she immediately grabbed Kiwi and covered her mouth with her hand.
"Uweeehhh - Kiwi! Why'd you tell them about that?!"
"Mphg?! Ish twuhe douh?"
Utena squealed with her mouth closed, high density embarrassment needed to be expressed somehow, she quickly dragged Kiwi away, back out of the arcade, onto the street.
"Kiwi~!! Don't Embarrass me like that again!!"
"I'm showy, Ubenna, 'uht ids just the twuth!"
"Uweahhhhhh~!!"
Utena slumbered over to a tree, crouched down and balled up beside it.
"Maybe I can sink into the ground and become one with the plants…"
"Oi! Wha happened?!"
She turned back in time to see Matama, Nemo, and Korisu walk up to her, and in the distance, Haruka and Kaoruko were traveling in the opposite direction, presumably leaving to do their own thing.
"Hey, Whatcha doin?"
"How are ya, dorks?!"
"Yo! Nemo, Akoya, Korisu!! Wassup!!"
"... Hi everyone…"
"How's Utena doing?"
"She was just fine up until a moment ago, when I uhhh… embarrassed her pretty badly."
"... It's alright…"
Utena stood up again, and did her best to wipe her face of the crimson stain of shame upon it. As she stretched her muscles, having exerted greatly for the first time today. Spotting a slightly more distant spot from the arcade, she brought all the members towards the poor isolation of just a short distance away.
"I didn't get to ask this last time we met, so… what happened to make Utena that bad? We were together right after the Ugly Flower incident and while obviously distressed, she wasn't that bad."
"She's a lot better than she was a day or two ago, I think. She just had a widdle nightmawe, and she came tow me in da middwe of da night to get cuddwes fwom me! We even cuddled to bed two days in a row now! I'm shooting for three, now."
"Huh…"
"Really?"
"... Y-Yeah… that's how it was."
"So… what are you guys doing out here?"
"I uhh, was taking Kiwi for today… we found Korisu and ate at a restaurant earlier… and now I'm gonna go shopping to get some stuff."
"Oh really? What stuff?"
"Well… the main thing was gonna be… a gift for Kiwi, but I also wanted to look at some plant seeds, I was looking into… potentially planting more flowers at the plots to the side of my and Kiwi's school, plants that represented us, Enormita!"
"Awww really?"
"I didn't realize you were a gardener…"
"WAIT! YOU'RE GETTING A GIFT FOR ME?!!"
"I - Yeah! Consider it a surprise… ish, since you know it's on the way now… but you don't get to know what it is until we get there, okay?"
"Yeah! Understood!"
"Really…? So you're sleeping together, getting breakfast together… and now going shopping together…?"
"That's pretty much couple behavior, you know?"
"Ah? Ahhh~! Mawwiage?!"
"Eh, Kiwi…? calm down! Where did you even hear that?!"
"Don't get into heat out here!"
It was too late, Kiwi was already swimming in fantasies.
"Hnng, Wifey~<3! Hand Holding~! Cuddling~! Kissing~!"
Korisu rolled her eyes and she sauntered over, Matama and Nemo both face palming in sync, while the child bonked the distracted girl in the forehead, as if this was just a regular occurrence, which… it kind of was.
"Gah! Stop hitting me! I've taken enough abuse today…"
"Alright then… if that's all from you guys then… I guess we can just leave y'all to it? I already had plans with Matama-chan here, so…"
"Yeah, we were gonna be heading to the restaurant just down the street, I wanted to do a little bit of singing!"
"Oh really? Kiwi-chan, can we watch them before we go off on our own?"
"Sure! Is that alright?"
"Sure." "Totally! Do we wanna get going now?"
"Actually…I gotta do something real quick… Matama-chan?"
"Hm? What is it?"
Kiwi walked up to Matama, and suddenly… hugged her?! She buried her face in the bust of the aspiring Idol, now it seemed more like she was judging the quality of the chest… planting her head straight forward first, before resting it facing right, then left. All the while, Matama herself was growing a blush, slowly at first, before suddenly accelerating to cover her whole face as Kiwi's extended 'hug' ended with her briefly grabbing the sides of her waist, then her thighs, before moving away.
"Uhuhuhuh- Kiwi?! What was that about?!"
Kiwi turned around, with the posture of someone imitating a wine taster.
"I was judging you."
"On what?"
"Your body obviously."
Kiwi suddenly looked proud, before flashing double thumbs-up and cheerfully announcing.
"You get an 8.5 out of 10 Cuddle Rating™! Great work, Akoya-chan!"
"WHAT?!" "Wheh?!"
Both Matama and Nemo suddenly looked exceptionally confused, Korisu simply seemed to zone out, somewhat tired of Kiwi's shenanigans by now. The shortstack blonde assumed a more serious look to explain herself.
"Ya see, Utena-chan here was made happier when being cuddled to sleep! My professional diagnosis is that Utena can no longer sleep without somebody else, but the problem is that I might not be available at all times. My solution to this is that I find a Backup Cuddlebug for her incase I am somehow unable to be with Utena-chan!"
Kiwi proclaimed this plan so proudly, but of course, the other persons objected to this.
"Whawha - I don't agree to this!"
"Yeah! Me and her are…!"
"You don't have to cuddle naked like we did, ya know? I think she'll be fine with just being hugged to sleep…"
"De- Wh- NO! I don't agree with Matama cuddling Utena at all! No-go! Access denied!"
"Well… actually..."
"You're also not even gonna be doing that all the time? It's just in emergencies."
"No!"
Utena felt like she was being compacted by feelings, she felt embarrassed enough to feel like she was gonna burst into flames, but right now she felt like she was just going to explode. Wha… where did this caretaker Kiwi come from? Her mind immediately recalled her words from their fight back then… "From now on, I'll make you fall even more in Love with me~<3" wasn't it…?
"Nemo-chan? I don't think it'll be that problematic… for me at least…"
"Well I still don't stand with it…"
"Well Nemo-san, your problem is having Matama be with Utena, right?"
"f*ckin - Obviously!!"
"Well then… why don't we go for 3-person cuddling? You two can take care of Utena together!"
"f*cking–!! Matama, we're going ahead!"
"Hey, wait! I'm not…"
It was too late, Nemo was simply too fed up with Kiwi's important attempt to borrow her girlfriend for caretaking, she dragged the other girl with her as she trudged away, disappearing around the corner.
"Aww man… I wanted to have an option for Emergency-Utena-Care… shiiieeet."
"Kiwi-chan…"
Utena finally found the energy to get up again.
"You really care that much, huh?"
"Have I not made this obvious?!"
"I mean, yeah…"
"Ugh… Guess we'll be going too, Korisu, you wanna come with us?"
Korisu is gonna be important to this plan… I'm a little sad I can't work on the flower plots right now, it becoming winter and all… but I think it'll be worth just taking a gander to try and decide what flowers to put down when the time comes. And for now, I want to try and see that side of Kiwi in the brightest light possible… since she doesn't wanna open up on her own, it seems… I mean, if Nemo was that happy playing her video games, how happy is Kiwi gonna be…?
She nodded, and moved from the other couple to join them again. Utena really wanted to ask more, but she already knew the answers to why Kiwi has been working so hard to take care of Utena… it was already known, it was because she loved her…
"You don't have a problem with me... sleeping with other girls? Erm - notinthenaughtywayofcourse!"
"Huh? How many times have you messed with Tres Magia in lewd ways? If I had a problem, I'd have brought it up a while ago."
"Fair enough..."
"Understood Mon' Capitan!"
They got going, Korisu came up to Utena, and grabbed her hand, and as three, they got moving again. Though, now Utena did have one, somewhat unimportant question now.
"So… the Emergency Cuddle thing… is that why you, uhm… did that with Sayo-san?"
"Nah, that came before I got the idea… though now I wish I could meet her now… for an actual investigation, though I don't think she would be as good for cuddling as me or Matama, in my professional opinion~"
This conversation was not good for letting Utena's blush fade away.
"Why… why's that?"
"So like - her boobs are really large, but are like… like stress balls, ya know? They've got both enough structure to retain a solid shape but have enough softness to jiggle around, but they aren't great for being… pillows, right? They're more fun to actually play around with rather than actually rest ya face on, like, give em a nice slap or somethin… she's really receptive to those being treated roughly, for some reason…"
"Is that so?"
"Yeah. She is tall, which is good for wrapping around ya, but unfortunately, she is also lean and athletic, so the rest of her isn't super soft… I think she would have liked a… 7 out of 10, quite good, but not the top tier option, she would be the second choice of Emergency Cuddler behind Matama-san!"
"Hmmm… I see…"
Now… who of Tres Magia would be the best for cuddling? I know Azur's body pretty well, and based on Kiwi's analysis, so she may be less-than-ideal for the same reasons… Sulfur wouldn't be good for Cuddling, but imagining her being cuddled by someone is a really cute scene… and Magenta would absolutely be the one to provide her with them… hehehehee~… Magenta would be pretty good at it, I think…
…
… Hey, wait a minute…
Dang it Kiwi! You've poisoned my mind with your affection! What is the world gonna think when the reason they haven't seen the big bad villain is because she wastes her time with thoughts of cuddling?
"Alright, y'all can sit here, me and Nemo-chan are gonna go prepare for this thing."
"Awight den."
"We're only staying for a song or two, is that okay?"
"Yeah, it's fine, we've got a small audience here, we'll be A-okay."
"I see."
"Let's go!"
They had arrived at a little club, and Kiwi ended up buying a fancy-looking drink, a tall soda drink with vanilla ice-cream floating in it, despite having already drunk plenty of root beer back at the restaurant, though to be fair, Utena herself also got an additional snack to have to watch Mata- or well - Pearl's performance today, just a few cookies. People idled around, a modest crowd of about 10 or 15 people scattered around the room, coming to watch the Aspiring Idol.
"I'm leaving this bag here, don't let anyone disturb it, okay? It's important for the performance."
"Hm?"
"Okay…?"
Even Korisu co*cked her head, what's in the bag?
"It's important, trust me. We wouldn't want Tres Magia to interrupt us over our precious singing exhibitionist."
"Quiet, you."
The duo left to walk towards the stage for their scheduled performance, she has half an hour to herself… Wait, Nemo went with her? One would think she would be sitting in the audience to listen to her… or is she just helping her set up somewhere?
While Utena was trying to think about the plan while munching a cookie, she heard the distinctive sounds of an artificial camera snap, she turned her head only to see Kiwi take one more picture, she definitely just got a shot of her biting into her treat…
"Hehehe… out here with da girlfwiend… is it okay to post these?"
"Hm?"
She's actually asking before doing her thing?
"Eh - sure! Go ahead…"
"Heehee~ Awight!"
Utena blushed a little at the idea of just being posted to the internet so casually, but it shouldn't be too bad, right? Kiwi bounced around in place as she likely typed up whatever she was posting. Humming a song that, she quickly identified, was one of the ones from the old-timey restaurant, but surprisingly, even Korisu started bouncing around to the rhythm that Kiwi was leading with.
Soon enough, Pearl appeared on the stage, having changed into somewhat exposed clothing, as expected, though remarkably, they weren't as revealing as she expected. It admittedly had a kind of short skirt, which likely had nothing underneath, but it wasn't super short, extending down and stopping just above the knees, and she even had some leg warmers coming up most of the way to cover her legs.
Matama picked up the microphone off of its stand, and took a deep breath, and began singing.
The beginning of our love, this continuing dream
I'll surely spend it with you~!
The cold wind, the season that brings us closer
As we entwine fingers, my feelings of love overflow
Every time I push the "warm" button on the coffee machine
A light goes on in my heart~!
She was… actually singing fairly well, it wasn't the heavenly voice she had when she sang entirely naked, but it was enough to get the modest fanbase gathered in the room. It was all on-key and on-beat, Utena would give it a 7/10, enjoyable and worth your time.
**BONK** "Agh…"
"Hm? Kiwi-chan, wha happened?"
A soft thunk, and Kiwi holding the back of her head, it was kinda obvious what might have happened.
"I wanted to, like, rest my head and look like I was sleeping, to hopefully annoy Matama-chan a little, but I eh… misjudged the distance and fuggin… dinged my head on the ledge here…"
"Hehe, now why would you do that~?"
"I like causing problems, on purpose. Making fun of Matama is a little fun, especially since she's gotta be 'exposed' to someone to sing, ya' know? She gets so embarrassed!"
"Is that so~?"
Fufufu~! Maybe I've infected Kiwi a little bit with my own terrible thoughts~!
GET DOWN!
A shaking, spinning, touching, painful feeling~!
Sleeping together in a Winter Land!
You are looking only at me, and I am looking only at you,
We make a promise for tomorrow…
You hold me tight and I feel a burning love~!
Wrapped in the heavily-falling snow!
I'll love you forever, I'll love you even more than today
Forever… Eternal Love~!
"What a dorky-ass song."
"Eh? You're recording it right now though?"
"It's a good dorky-ass song. I think we got lucky because this one has written lyrics for her to sing already, I swear, if I have to hear the regular "LOVELY LOCO" again…"
"I mean… wasn't there a song from… well I forget where, but it was literally just to prove the point that a song can have the singing be complete gibberish, but as long as it sounds good, it can be really popular. I think it became one of their best-performing songs, I think, anyway."
"Really? It made some really solid clown music…"
Korisu shot her a glance, to which, Kiwi only shrugged, before she nodded with the energy of 'I guess it's true, yeah…'.
"How is she singing well anyway? She isn't as exposed as she should be…"
"I was wondering that too!"
The bag left behind probably had something to do with it… along with what Nemo said… actually, come to think of it, where is Nemo right now? Would she not be watching from somewhere, even after helping her get ready, right? But she's nowhere to be seen…
I'll treasure this silver ring, it joins our futures,
A proof of our love that'll always protect me…
Your gentle smile lulls even my sadness to sleep
Like a warm blanket…
GET DOWN!
I don't care about lies, the past, or the present…
Spending the Winter Nights together!
We share tender kisses and wish on a star
And forget the past!
Stroke my hair, softly my love…
Your whispered words overflow in my heart!
I'll love you forever, I'll love you even more than today
Forever, Eternal Love~!
… Suddenly, an idea sparked in Utena's mind. She tried to sense magic and immediately found the first piece to the puzzle : She could not sense magic right now, not that there was no magic to sense or anything, but specifically, her ability to sense magic was being blocked. She looked down at Matama's bag that was left behind.
There's probably a magical suppression device in there, huh?
Then that would mean…
… Leberblume's hiding underneath Akoya Matama's skirt, isn't she~?
A devilishly lewd grin crept upon Utena's face as she found the answer, but as she went to talk to Kiwi about teasing them later on, she heard a low sound from next to her… humming?
It was indeed sound, she looked to Korisu, it was… the oddest thing, this child who had hardly made a sound beyond huffs of exertion, was now humming lowly to the singing of the song as it was about to end, it was almost impossible to notice as the volume of the crowd gradually rose in the little club, but it was there, surreal… she didn't seem to notice that Utena noticed, at least, so she could continue to observe the unnatural phenomenon as long as she could.
The song came to its end, and there was a fairly enthusiastic applause, probably the most one could get out of the middling size of the gathered people. Pearl struck several cute poses, thanked people for coming, blew some kisses at one or two, and whatever else. She was panting and sweating, yet she does look like she just had the time of her life. The next song started up, and the singer bounced along to the beat.
It ain't over 'till it's over, Foooo~!
Po-Pa Po-Pa Po-Pa Pan~!
Po-Pa Po-Pa Po-Pa Pan~!
(Yeah!)
Po-Pa Po-Pa Po-Pa Pan~!
(Yeah!)
Po-Pa Po-Pa Po-Pa Pan~!
(Yeah) (Ooooo~!)
"Ah, that kind of song was what I was expecting to hear."
"Sounds a lot more, 'Loco Musica', huh?"
"Absolutely, she's probably making this up on the spot!"
As the music progressed, the Korisu's humming returned as well, still somewhat hidden underneath the gradually growing cheering and chattering of the fans, concealing her voice such that only Utena, sitting right next to her, could hear her. She's… really enjoying herself.
"You are… having a real good time, huh, Korisu-chan?"
The little girl snapped her head in the direction of Utena, then looked down. As she leaned down to look at her face, she noticed the smallest hint of a blush on her face, clearly embarrassed about being caught like that… something that knowing her blank-default face, would've been thought to be impossible, or at least, exceptionally difficult to achieve.
How adorable.
Utena simply patted her on the head to reassure her.
Come on, let's do it - Come on, let's do it!
Let's make a world just for you and me!
Come on, let's start - Come on, let's start!
But what we gonna start with? (Hmm~?)
Come on, let's dance - Come on, let's dance!
Let's dance with lots of Joy and Energy! (Yeah~Yeah!)
"Well, I was only planning to stick around for a song or two… but how about we stay for the whole thirty minutes?"
She looked elated at the idea.
"Looks like a 'yes'!"
Hehehe…
We can stay for a little while longer, we've got the whole day after all.
Utena arrived at the side of a little store with both of her companions, she just needed to quickly check this part of her expansive list of two tasks done. She was already missing the rambunctious music of the club, but after the show was over, Matama and Nemo both went off on their own to do stuff on by themselves, so it ended up just being herself, Kiwi, and Korisu again…
"Dayum, this place looks borin'."
"A little… but I just need to look around real quick, then we'll go to the store to get your thing, okay?"
"Awwright…"
Utena led the way, opening the door, and along with Korisu, walked side by side, gazing upon the rows of flower packets, and trying her best to assign different ones to different members of her Evil Villain Group. Kiwi meanwhile, merely began to idle wander around the little shop, her disinterest being quite obvious.
For herself, her eyes quickly fell upon several purple-ish images next to each other… 'Dwarf Iris', 'Lavender', 'Bellflower'... Utena pulled out her phone, and started jotting down names and taking pictures of potential selections, but she felt somewhat cringy trying to assign herself traits based on flowers, as though she were somehow someone to be honored…
Korisu tilted her head to the side while Utena was taking notes on her cellular device, then the kid looked up at her, seemingly expecting something, so… Utena got to speaking her mind.
"Well… one of the more immediately obvious plants to grab would be the Liverwort flower."
Utena hunched slightly over Korisu just in case someone was listening in on their conversation, even though there was hardly anyone else in the shop.
"The name 'Leberblume' literally translates to Liverwort from German. Then there is…"
Utena collected her thoughts, and picked the next one that was immediately assembled together.
"How about you have the Daisies? Icon of childhood innocence and stuff… I think they would suit you well, right?"
Korisu nodded along.
"And then… Matama-san can just have the… how about the Yellow Tulips here? I know they don't match her colors but Yellow is generally the color of 'Happiness'... "
"And then… well I was just thinking of the 'Balloon Flower' here for myself see? It's all purple, and it's roughly star shaped - though with five points, not four… and lastly…"
Utena did her best to come up with reasoning for the plant she was thinking of… somewhat nervous about what Kiwi would think, being represented that way…
"How about the cactus?"
As expected, Korisu looked up at her with her blank face, but with an obvious energy of confusion, or more like intrigue, maybe.
"Well… think of it this way."
"Cacti are really tough… and don't actually need much to survive on, they'll live in basically any condition with little water and stuff, and despite being known for being spiky and dangerous to touch, they'll still bloom with pretty flowers on them… I imagine even Kiwi-chan could take care of one of these!"
Korisu's lips pursed up, and she put her hand on chin as if thinking, before crossing her arms and looking up at Utena, nodding approvingly at her assessment.
"Hehe… glad you agree."
Utena glanced around a little more, before looking slightly dejected.
"Ugh… why can't it be Summer already? I wanna get to planting these…"
She was planning to leave, having achieved her goal of Just Looking Around™, but Utena felt a tug on the hem of her shirt as she turned to leave.
"Hm? What is it, Korisu-chan?"
The little one pointed to seeds for what was labeled as a 'baby cactus', what looked like a very small version of the regular plant, specifically for windowsills and such, a decorative piece.
"Hm? Do you want… that plant?"
Korisu nodded her head 'no', then pointed to Kiwi, who was still moping around near the entrance, still appearing disinterested in the location.
"Oh! You want to get that for Kiwi? Right now?"
She nodded yes.
"Hmm… I guess we can get it here… I don't know how well Kiwi would do… actually I imagine she might take care of it quite well if it came from me… alright then? Hrng… we'll have to get a put and a little bit of soil to go with it too… uwehhh starting takes effort…"
Korisu briefly assumed a pondering pose, before motioning in a way that conveyed 'okay so?', Utena sighed.
"Guess I can't be too adverse to putting in effort… we'll get the stuff."
The purchase was complete, she stuffed the essential items in her bag, that was already a good chunk of Utena's allowance, money that had been collecting during her time not spending it, her whole Great Villainy streak and all… she swore she felt almost slight physical pain spending that much money… but it will be worth it. She walked towards the entrance where Kiwi was.
"Sorry for boring you by being here, let's go… the next place, we're gonna be getting your thing, okay?"
"Alright, heck yeah! Whatever was your thing, anyway?"
"Don't worry about it, it's something that'll come much later."
Utena discreetly used a small portal to basically teleport her purchases away from her bag into an unused room in Nacht Base. She'll give her this gift in a little while… but for now, we gotta get the main one.
"Anyway, look at this!"
"Huh?"
A comment of some kind, on Kiwi's phone, it simply read "She looks so headpattable", but Kiwi looked extremely happy about it.
"They're not talking about me there… they're talking about you!"
She scrolled back up, and sure enough, it was on a photo that only featured Utena in frame.
"Uwehh? Being called that online…"
"What else could I do to direct attention to the cutest girl in the world? You did allow me after I asked you, after all."
"I did…"
It felt nice to be praised like that, but while Utena was trying to decide whether to be happy or uncomfortable with strangers online seeing her too much, she suddenly felt a soft hand rub gently against the top ahead.
"Whe-what are you doing?!"
"What? Looked like you needed some headpats, you like those right?"
"I mean…"
"You're not saying no~!"
Kiwi giggled while jogging a short distance ahead, before she turned back to say -
"Come on! Weren't we goin' somewhere?"
Next store to visit, 'Hobby Island'?, sounds like the place to be.
"Whatcha gettin' me?!"
Kiwi was practically vibrating with excitement and anticipation, Korisu also looked pretty interested, though less so, or more likely, she just isn't showing it as much.
"Well, we gotta find it first."
There were multiple parts to this gift plan, well, only two technically, this first part.
"We're looking for a specific section… I dunno where it is specifically though… I've only really perused the part with the Magical Girls…"
"What are we looking for?"
"You'll see~!"
Kiwi was obviously intrigued as they wandered around in search of the isle that could potentially house whatever Utena was looking for… in no time at all, they soon came upon it.
"Are these-?"
"I don't know much about this stuff, so just pick out whichever one you like, and I'll buy it for you."
A isle was spared for these, a wall of armoured vehicles of all kinds, old to new. Kiwi instantly gravitated towards the more modern ones on the far side, before leaning back, seemingly dissatisfied.
"What a joke… they don't have the TVM…"
She pulled out the box, adorned on it, 'LEOPARD 2A4'.
"Though this one is pretty good too."
The tank displayed was indeed pretty similar to the TVM she had seen much earlier, though the front of the turret on this one was completely vertically flat, looking more like a toaster robot of some kind from the front, and had some kind of camera cluster behind glass in a little protected box nestled next to the cannon.
"Is that your choice?"
"Hmm…"
Kiwi looked to the side, gazing over down the lane, Utena couldn't line-up the exact spot she was looking at, she could see what boxes were in the rough area, 'TIGER II (HENSCHEL TURRET)', 'JAGDTIGER', 'STURMGESCHUTZ IV (WITH SCHURZEN)', 'JAGDPANTHER G1'. Many grandiose heavy-looking tanks with German names, mainly animals, though some modest-sized ones were mixed in, they looked like they were from World War II, probably.
"Probably, yeah."
Maybe I'll get her one of those next time. Just the one for now, I ain't made of money.
"Alright then… I'll buy it for you, then we'll go to your house to build it up, okay?"
"YesYesYesAlright!"
Kiwi perked up again, suddenly looking excited again at the prospect of building this model. As they approached the cash register, Utena glanced to the side, noticing some smaller toy tanks, they were the kind that you would pull back across the ground to wind them up, then let go and they would zoom forward on their own.
We'll need targets for this thing to shoot, won't we?
And so she quietly grabbed one little olive-green tank and put it in front of the employee just after he scanned her item. It was admittedly both cheap, and cheap-looking, that tracks on it weren't even real, it's method of movement being tiny wheels sticking out the bottom, but it was acceptable, they weren't going to be riding it anyway.
"A souvenir?"
"Something like that."
Maybe she thought it was something unimportant, but she seemed excited nonetheless. Korisu who had been following them, showed little interest in this place, somewhat akin to how Kiwi was at the Gardening shop, which was fair, there wasn't anything explicitly doll-like or toy-like from what she saw, it was all majority anime girls figurines, with a handful of individual isles dedicated to magical girls, western icons, tanks and aircraft, and whatever else. Everything was a model to be posed, not a toy to be played with.
Hehe… not for long.
"Alright then, shall we get this built?"
"HEYAH! My house, right?! Let's-a go!"
"I'M HOME~!"
Kiwi announced their presence once the front door was opened, and immediately, Utena heard a scuffling, and a small miniature Kiwi started a ravenous approach from the hallway connected to the living room.
"Oh Kiwi! Is this your - PLERG!"
Utena had been once again pounced upon by a dirty-blonde monster, but this Kiwi-resembling creature did not have the same weight that the real Kiwi did, so it failed to knock her over like usual, instead, now she hung off her neck, looking uncomfortably close to her face.
"OOHH~! This must be Utena~! You said you wanted to marry this girl, right?!"
"That's right!! She's the one!!"
"Hewwo~! Future daughter-in-law!"
"Wh- Don't be making decisions for me just - wait, daughter?!"
"Yep! Thas my mommy!"
This… small, adorable creature is Kiwi's mom? She looks young enough to be a child!
"Wha… how?"
Both Kiwi and her mom didn't respond, but rather, the mother simply hopped off Utena in order to express their energy together, spinning, hopping, dancing, to celebrate her arrival. Korisu also seemed mildly stunned.
"Come on! Must build the thingy!"
"Oh! Oh! She's staying here?! Have you eaten lunch, Utena-san?!"
"Ehrm… not yet…"
"I'll make it for you then!! Are you allergic to anything I should know about?!"
"Not- Not that I know of!"
"Okay-okay!! Just wanted to double-check, get going now! Do the fun things, I'll be taking out the food now!!"
"Come on, let's go!!"
Kiwi dragged her quickly towards her room, leaving Utena only the briefest moment to see Kiwi's mom go to the kitchen and pick up a step-stool. Korisu followed as quickly as she could, and they all ended up in a spacious room.
"Awight, let's open this up, baby!"
"It's time to get started, huh?"
"Took long enough!"
Kiwi dug her fingers into the flaps at the sides of the box, bending them open slightly before ripping them all the way open, warping the cardboard greatly, before lazily dumping the contents onto the floor, where they gathered around the divided bags of pieces to get to work on. Kiwi immediately claimed doing the Hull section, while Korisu ended up getting the Turret, and with both major parts of the tank claimed, Utena ended up receiving the mundane work of putting the treads together, she got to slowly clipping the tiny pieces of metal into a flappy length of track that would wrap around the wheels eventually.
"Put shum TV on… ya like cartoons lil' Korishu?"
*Click!*
"... I just want to groom and train poodles…"
"Are you kidding me? I groom and train poodles in my spare time!"
"You guys gotta be messing with me, I secretly groom and train poodles when your backs are turned! Come on guys! Turn your backs!"
*Snip, snip!* *Clip, Clip!*
"You see? I'm doing it! I'm doing it!"
"I can't see! My back is turned!"
"Hehehe… it's so dumb, I love it."
"Here we are~! Pizza bites! Be careful, they're pretty hot~! I just took them out of the oven."
Kiwi's mom bursted in, carrying a wooden folding tray above her head, the legs of the table barely hovering an inch or two above the ground, being lifted as high as her little motherly arms could, and atop it, the aforementioned cooked snack on it, a metal pan covered with tin foil crinkling slightly as she set down the tray next to the three girls and their project.
"Wha- that was fast!"
"Oh it's nothing~! My daughter simply texted me ahead of time that you were arriving, so I preheated my oven and everything~!"
"I-I see…"
"Thank you momma~! Come on, Utena, Korisu! We've got background noise, and snacks. Let's get to work!"
"Ah-Alright then!"
Utena rolled up her own sleeves as the mom said her goodbye, time to do this thing!
"My fingies hurt…"
"So do mine, but look! This sh*t looks awesome!"
It indeed looked pretty cool, she thought so at least. The 3-color pattern of camouflage consisting of dark colors, black, brown, and green, gave it a neat look, and Kiwi had set it up and as much of an 'action pose' as she could, perched up slightly on an eraser, turret aimed to one side, cannon aimed into the air, it had a certain look to it.
Utena looked down, there was a noticeable dent in her thumbs… but somehow, Korisu and Kiwi seemed unbothered after this, despite having done more work on both the Turret and Hull sections, how…? Maybe it was because they had done the big robot previously, it gave them some kind of resistance to handling these painfully small pieces.
Kiwi sat on the ground in front of the shelf, staring at the proud military vehicle, a dopey grin on her face.
"Thish… this is pretty nice… thank you Utena-chan~…"
"Oh, we aren't done with this thing yet~!"
"Whuh?"
Utena stood up from the ground, and gingerly picked up the freshly assembled armour, idly twirling it's moving parts for a few moments.
"We'll have to go to Nacht Base for it… Korisu, I'll need your help with this, okay?"
She co*cked her head to one side, then nodded her confirmation. Utena grew a mischievous smile on her face as she turned to Kiwi again.
"Alright, come on! It's time for your real gift~!"
Kiwi's mind was pacing back and forth between possibilities like a metronome, they had just portalled into a large empty patch of land outside the main building of Nacht Base… and behind her, Utena and Korisu were up to something, she just didn't know what. She was specifically told to turn around and close her eyes, as there was one last surprise in store for her.
She could hear whispering behind her, but they were too far away for her to make out what they were saying. And soon, she heard the telltale sound of transformation, and then… a kind of cross between the sounds of… steel groaning and a balloon inflating? As though whatever was being inflated couldn't make up its mind on what material it was made out of.
She was bouncing on the balls of her feet with anticipation, she heard a little more whispering behind her. And then finally, the words came.
"Alright, you can turn around now, Kiwi-chan."
What?
There's an actual f*cking Leopard 2A4 in front of her?
And Korisu-chan's transformed… so…
"I was a little worried about this plan! If I didn't have Korisu, I wasn't fully sure what I would do, I do remember that time I had the uhh, the Magia Azur figure that I affected with my magic, it grew up to regular size so I thought if Korisu didn't - "
"UTENA-CHAN I WUV YOU KISH ME NAOW!!"
"WHAGH!!"
"I wuv you~! I wuv youuu~! I wuv-wuv-WUV YOU~!!"
"C-Calm down Kiwi-chan! We gotta - agh! - actually - unf!"
It couldn't be helped, she was pinned underneath the overwhelmingly energized Kiwi's assault of kisses and smooches to the cheeks.
She eventually relented, panting heavily like an excited puppy, before her eyes landed upon the tank again, and she quickly rushed towards it, clambering on top of the turret and posing with her fists resting on her hips.
"Now, I'm the f*ckin' C.E.O. of blowin' sh*t up! FOR REAL!!"
"Come on you two! Tanks need a crew to operate, ya know?!"
"Uwehh? Is that so..?"
Korisu simply floated up to the top of the vehicle next to Kiwi, while Utena had to brush herself off and walk towards the vehicle, she didn't think she'd have to exert herself that much today… she hadn't done any fighting for a short while, her muscles needed a little stretching…
"Here, you don't have to climb all the way to the top, there's a hatch right here!"
She pointed to the smaller entrance in front of the turret, nestled partially underneath the cannon barrel. Utena hunched over, crawling across the front and reached towards it. She grabbed the handle, and…
"Hrnk! Heeernngg…"
"Ah crap you can't lift it? Eh - gimme a sec."
Kiwi jumped down from the top of the turret next to Utena, motioning her to let go, before more easily lifting the whole slab of metal herself, letting out a huff.
"Hop in, you're the driver!"
And as commanded, Utena hopped down into the darkish interior of the vehicle. The seat was remarkably comfy, with a few small important-looking knick-knacks and doo-dads scattered throughout the free space to either side of her. There was a surprising amount of familiarity to the position, it closely resembled the driver's seat of an actual car.
Kiwi leaned over the open hatch over her and peered down in the compartment.
"Okay-okay! Do you see… a big red button off to the side? To turn on the engine."
"It doesn't need keys?"
"Nope! Plenty of Military vehicles actually don't, if I remember right."
Utena pressed the button, and in the distance of the rear end of the ride, the engine roared to life with a half-metallic and half-electronic whine, it almost felt like someone had a low bass guitar making noise at the back.
**MMMMMRRRAOOOOOORRRRR!!!**
"Oh wow… the engine sounds… really powerful… and there's an air conditioner? Erm, Kiwi-chan, what do all these things do? Actually just… how do I… drive this thing…?"
The vibrations of the engine turning over could be felt throughout the chassis, and soon enough, everything turned on, she could even feel… air conditioning? She felt a fan blowing somewhere behind her, and sure enough, the temperature changed from the mild chill of Nacht to perfectly room temperature, though the difference wasn't great, she certainly appreciated the slightly increased warmth from outside.
The interior brightened up with lights, revealing the white-painted walls, everything was so modern looking, which was to be expected, but Utena's imagery of tanks was a lot more… mechanical? It all looked so sleek and efficient.
"Eh- Ah- Hold on! I'll come around behind ya, just gimme a second!"
"Ah- Alright?!"
Kiwi giggled as she hopped up from above her, clambered back onto the top of the turret, and disappeared from view. And soon enough, from somewhere inside the area behind Utena, she heard the echo of another hatch opening, followed by a person dropping to the floor, followed by… another person…?
"Awight, Korisu-chan? You get the fancy seat back here! Comfy?"
No response was audible, but Kiwi confirmed there was one.
"Okay! I'm gonna go down with Utena-chan."
With that, some shuffling was heard in the big compartment that connects to her driver position, before suddenly, Kiwi appeared! Sliding out from underneath what Utena assumed was the back end of the cannon, before she crawled up to her and perched herself next to her seat, sitting on some kind of metallic structure. She was still vibrating a little bit with what was likely anticipation.
"Alright Utena-chan! It's time to get us moving! Um…"
"Yeah, I wanted to ask about this, there are… two 'P's? And what is 'L'? 'NT'?"
"Hold on, Hold on! Right now, put it on NT."
"Okay?"
She grabbed the knob and pulled it Neutral, then from there, into the aforementioned slot, she didn't feel as much… 'feedback' as she expected moving the gear shift around, it felt like the knob wasn't connected to much at all. Maybe it was just electrically connected to the necessary mechanisms or something like that…
"Hehee~!! Now turn the wheel a little to the right, and press the gas!"
Utena pressed the pad with little mind, and was taken swiftly off guard with the sensation of her surroundings simply rumbling as the vehicle turned in place, one set of tracks moving forward while the other moved the opposite way, the view of the place in front of her smoothly rotating about 45 degrees right, the sensations of the engine reverberating throughout the steel structure shook her extremities.
This sudden feedback of rattling sense was so… overwhelming, and Kiwi seemed to take notice of Utena being abruptly startled by the unexpected power coming from their construction. She patted her on the back.
"Hey! Good job, we'll take it nice and slow, we just need to get to a good firing position. Put the gear into Drive now."
"Okay… wait, 'Firing Position'?"
"Of course! Did you forget about the big ass cannon on this thing?"
Fair enough.
"Alright, uhmm… where exactly are we…?"
"We're already facing roughly where the ridgeline is, you just need to bring us to it!"
"I gotcha…"
"Actually - before we get going, here - put these on."
"H-Headphones?"
"Yeah, I'm gonna go up to the Tank Commander's seat, I'm gonna guide you from high up, okay?"
Utena giggled a little, Kiwi's totally in her element now, at no point did she not find Kiwi bouncing around at least a little excitedly, she looked so happy playing with the tank. Utena saluted Kiwi off, as she exited the compartment and up into the turret, before again disappearing from view around the bulk of the cannon inside.
She put the muffs over her ears and awaited orders, the sounds of the engine were dulled but the feeling of the harmonic vibrations were still very much felt. She suddenly found herself a little nervous, now suddenly having to drive by herself… it should be fine, right? Though a little bit different, the controls are almost just like a car…
"Utena, come in. Can you hear me?"
"Eh! - Uh? - Loud and clear, captain!"
"Heehee, yes! Okay, drive forward, get us up and over these dunes towards the cliff."
"Uhhh… Aye aye…"
She slid the stick into Drive, and this time, with some mild hesitation, lightly pressed the gas. The vehicle rumbled with energy again as it trundled forward, with renewed force. The ground felt like it was being crunched underneath the heavy tracks of the vehicle, she passed over a rock, felt a heavy crumble, and as Utena glanced over at the rear view mirror, there were only many little pebbles left behind, weighty pad marks are embedded into the ground like the trail left by a great big predatory dinosaur, picking up momentum all the while.
Feels more like I'm driving a monster truck… though I've never driven one of those so… I dunno what that's like either. This is definitely what I imagine it would feel like though.
Also…
Isn't this thing moving pretty fast for a 'tank'?
"Ooh - Ooh! Run over those little stalag-things on the left there!!"
"Oh! Ah! Okay!"
She yanked the steering wheel to the left, quickly trying to follow Kiwi's command, she felt herself being thrown in the other direction, she felt the control of the vehicle slip as the thing skidded just a little bit, drifting like a car just a short distance before stabilizing and continuing on it's new track towards a small cluster of spiky stones.
Just how is a tank able to move fast enough to drift, even a little? Aren't these things supposed to be big and heavy beasts?! 'Tank' doesn't invoke 'Speed' in my mind!
"Wooohhooo~!! Come on Utena! You're a natural at drivin' this!!"
"I don't feel like one…!"
"Here we go~!!"
Steel met stone in collision and won, the spikes were no match for the weight and momentum the monster had built up in its movement, the most extreme sound of gravelish rocks being run over reverberated through Utena's surroundings. Quickly enough, the spikes were run through, one fell over her and almost conked her on the head, but she was able to duck down, the tall spike coming down and covering the open hole above her.
"Heehee~! That was cool!"
"My butt is trembling…"
She could hear her stomping and hopping up and down from her position, even if she couldn't see her excitement… She knew she was happy.
"...If only we had some cars to crunch… you didn't bring any, did you, Utena?"
"Sadly, no."
Taking her foot off the pedal, and with a hefty push, she moved the stalagmite off the hatch entrance, but the conical shape prevented it from simply sliding off, turning vertically. With a frustrated grunt having to get up from her seat, she swatted like a cat at the offending rock, turning it sideways, allowing it to properly roll off the angled front of the vehicle, shattering it into more pieces as it fell to the ground. The vehicle lost momentum and eventually came to a halt as it happened.
"Say, Kiwi-chan…"
"Yeah?"
"Are tanks really this mobile? It feels nothing like I expected it too…"
"Really, it's the modern tanks like this one that can move like this, we haven't even gotten around to its maximum speed yet! And this one isn't even the fastest MBT around! Though it's still ONE of the fastest. You should see the Type-10! It's about 10 or 15 tonnes lighter, so that thing can zoom around like it's a damn go kart!!"
"Really…?"
"Yeah!!"
"Okay…"
"The Leopard tanks were meant to be some really aggressive fighters, they're agile and pack a decent cannon, with relatively thin armour, built on the idea that armour didn't matter much if you not only didn't get shot, but there was nothing left alive to shoot ya."
"I see…"
"Okay, back to going towards the firing position, take us away, driver!"
"Ah, right! Let's go!"
Utena's hands felt slightly numb, the kind of numb gained from using a controller that has been vibrating a lot for a little too long, her butt was trembling and a little sweaty, been sitting for a little too long as well, it seems… Her heart was beginning to rush slightly, with a heavy sigh, she stomped her foot down and got to moving the vehicle again, this time with the slightest feeling that she knew what she was doing.
The tank trundled onward, soon arriving at the 'nice' ridgeline that Kiwi had pointed out, ascending the hill to the overlook, the world outside the hatch turning upwards to 45 degrees before leveling out again, they arrived at the top turned slightly to the side, somewhat mimicking the pose the model had when it was on Kiwi's shelf.
And with that Kiwi came down behind Utena again, and tapped on her shoulder.
"Alright girl, it's time."
"Time for..?"
"Firing the cannon! That's why we brought this thing up here in the first place."
"Ah, that's right…"
"Come on! Come into the turret!"
"Okay…"
With that, she crawled behind Kiwi into the turret compartment, and stood up inside it, finally catching sight of Korisu for the first time in a while, she almost forgot she was here. She looked mildly overwhelmed, but she seemed to be bouncing around in her seat fairly comfortably, as Kiwi squeezed by the back end of the cannon to reach her, picked her up briefly before sitting in the seat herself and setting Nero-Alice in her lap, Kiwi lifted the big hatch above her while cranking something below her to bring herself upwards to peer outside.
"Erm - Utena, come over here for a sec."
Utena followed Kiwi in shuffling around the thin space at the back of the turret and came up to her, Kiwi shimmied slightly to the side, giving her the space necessary to sit alongside her. Utena's head peered out the big, circular exit, as her face came into contact again into the mildly chilly air of the outside, there were only empty expanses beyond the ridge. Come to think of it, what was there in this dimension besides Nacht Base? Was it just infinite sandy rocks and stalagmites? Or was there an 'edge' to this place?
"See anything fun to shoot at? Like that rock over there…? This is a little…"
"I did actually bring something for that, just in case!"
"Oh! Really?!"
"Looky here~!"
Utena produced the little toy tank she had bought way back at the hobby shop. Kiwi lit up with a realization.
"Oh! That's what that was!"
"Yup! Let's place this over yonder, okay?"
"Yeah-yeah-yeah!'
"It should be a good distance away so… it'll probably be faster to fly…"
"Right."
"Trans Magia!" "Trans Magia!"
With both of them now Leopard and Baiser, completing the original trio of Villains, the Military Girl picked up the Evil Child as they all climbed atop the Leopard Tank, gently floated into the air, before all flying towards the empty space of land ahead.
Landing on the ground, Baiser laid down the cheap toy on the ground, and motioned to Nero-Alice to do her thing, she nodded, and while making no movements, stared intently into the plastic.
"Woah… so this is what was goin' on when you made the Leopard real back there."
They spoke as the little olive-green vehicle on the ground began to inflate, the sounds changed several times as it grew in size, from of plastic bending mixed with a balloon inflating, to the sounds of steel bending with the balloon inflating, pieces clanging into place as it expanded, muffled thunks as though it were somehow made of both metal and rubber at the same time, as if reality couldn't figure out what material the magic-affected object was made out of.
"Yup! Again, I wasn't sure if Alice was gonna cooperative, or even be available when I was doing this, so the backup plan was gonna be me affecting the model with my magic, I remembered when I did something like that with a Magia Azur figure when we fought them way back, she blow up into regular size and mimicked her voice for the short time it existed. I wondered if I could do something similar with the tank, but I decided using Alice was a more… 'surefire' way of bringing it to life."
"... How long were you planning this?"
"Only since this morning, really. It was around when I asked you about your interests in this kind of thing, I decided trying to do this might be worth it."
"Huh…"
The unfortunate vehicle beside them had finished growing to size, it was a little taller than the Leopard tank, the front was flat and at about a 45 degree angle, it had a rounded little turret with a modestly sized cannon sticking out of it, significantly smaller that the one the more modern beast had, it wasn't even long enough to overhang off the hull. Kiwi sighed with satisfaction, walking up and rubbing the side of the soon-to-be-wrecked target.
"Ahhh… The Sergeant Oddball's Sherman… this is a pretty old tank, ya know? From around the 1940s, World War Two, the United States."
"Really? I didn't think tanks were that old… that would mean about 60, 70, even 80 something years between that and that modern one, right? I don't know what year that one was made in..."
"They're even older, the first tank made it's debut in the First World War, in 1917."
Leopard gazed upon the more primitive vehicle, before looking to Baiser one more time.
"Okay, let's go back now! It's time for the big event!"
"Of course, Kommandant~!"
Returning to the superior tank, they all clambered back in through the big top hatch, Alice returning to her comfy seat at the back of the turret, watching with her usual blank expression as Baiser and Leopard go to moving around the interior space.
"Baiser-chan~! Over here!"
"Hmm? What is it?"
She walked over to Leopard, the person, and squeezed next to her, side by side with the other person, she gazed at what Leopard pointed out, a somewhat familiar screen, not dissimilar to the shooter games Nemo plays sometimes, a view with a crosshair, cannon visible to the left while the corners of the body were seen along the bottom.
"So… Obviously, I wanted to fire the cannon here… but erm - just real quick…"
Kiwi leaned forward over the seat in front of the screen, and grabbed onto the joystick to the right of it, and turned it slightly left. Instantly, a disorienting feeling overtook Baiser as Leopard, again, the person, controlled the turret of the Leopard, the tank, the entire little environment around her shifting in slight directions, she leaned against the guard of the cannon next to her, but immediately had to move away from it as it too started moving in little bursts.
She thought the floor below her would move as the turret moved, but was taken off guard when she moved along with everything. As she looked down, the 'floor' was more like a platform that hovered just above the actual floor of the inside, attached to the turret itself. She leaned over the cannon to look over the other side of the interior to see the driver position where she once was had moved, previously at the front right, the entrance was now at the back right of the space, the turret having rotated about 90 degrees left.
"Whoooh… that didn't feel good."
"Ope, sorry Baiser-chan, that was prolly a little weird for you, huh?"
"Yeah… I'm fine though, just a tiny bit motion sick."
Leopard straightened up and stretched her back, outstretching her arms out as much as she could in the confined space, and let out a satisfied sigh as Baiser glanced again at the screen that was being used to aim, the crosshair on it positively overlapping over the target they had laid out minutes earlier.
"Heehee~! Okay! Time for the last step, loading the cannon."
Leopard squeezed past her again and went to the back of the turret, searching around for several moments before locating the opening of a door, which she slide open, revealing the back ends of many of what Baiser quickly recognized were cannon shells, stored neatly in rows, big ones too, befitting the big cannon literally right next to her.
"I… don't know what any of these icons mean… uhm… this one?"
She pulled out one round by the end, and as it slid out, caught the other end with her free hand, before hefting it up to look at it, almost cradling it like it's a baby. The end had an exceptionally weird shape to it, it had a clear spike shape, but was wrapped in some kind of plastic structure that upon a closer look, was sectioned into four pieces. It was colored oddly too, the body was silver instead of the brass she expected, and the spiked top was a pale blue.
"So this is the A.P.F.S.D.S. round, meant exclusively for Anti-Armour use, not what we want…"
"Wha… A.P… F…"
"Armour-Piercing, Fin-Stabilized, Discarding Sabot."
Leopard laid out the acronym, before noticing Baiser's look of mild confusion, prompting her to explain it.
"Ah, it's basically what it does is… it fires this little 'Dart', embedded in the plastic structure here, which is called the 'Sabot', as the projectile that does damage and stuff. The Sabot 'Discards' as it leaves the barrel, sending the Dart flying at absurd velocities, and it moves so fast because, ehh… it's using the same amount of propellant, like gunpowder, to move something much smaller, so a regular AP round that takes up the whole barrel will move significantly slower than this thing. The Sabot is just necessary so the small round can fill up the barrel, and doesn't help much other than that."
A little bit overwhelmed by the explanation, Baiser could only nod, struggling a little bit to retain the information provided to her.
"I… see… though the projectile does look a little small… even if that will penetrate the armour, does that do enough damage?"
"Possibly, Possibly not! Because it doesn't have an explosive payload, this kind of round relies a lot more on hitting potentially important stuff on the inside of the target vehicle.
"Ah, I see… then… what is the explosive kind of round? Those are usually what's seen in movies and games, right?"
"That would be… either just straight High-Explosive… or…"
Leopard slid the Anti-Armour round back into its slot, before searching again through the wall and pulling out a different one, this time, with a much more familiar conical top that looked much more like the kind of artillery ammunition she expected.
"This! H.E.A.T.! Or 'High-Explosive, Anti-Tank'. A much more 'multi-purpose' kind of round, since it both explodes, but it can also still pierce armour."
"Now how does it do that?"
"Shaped-Charge Warhead. Basically the inside of this thing is shaped to have a nice and dense explosion that creates a molten jet of copper, which then just straight-up burns a hole into the armour before spraying hot liquid metals and shrapnel all over the inside. This is the kind of shot we need to make the big boom that I want! This here 120mm Cannon is definitely going to annihilate that poor Sherm over there."
"Oh! I think I understand…"
Again, struggling to retain all this information a little, but Leopard looked so content now, getting to explain the functions of these ammunition types, the lectures reminding Baiser 'Oh yeah! Kiwi-chan is supposed to be pretty smart, isn't she?!'
Leopard flipped the round so the top was now facing forward, flopped her long sleeves several times to bring her hands out properly, then before layed it onto the lip of the cannon's rear opening, pushing it most of the way in, she struggled to reach the ordnance from the back of the turret, leaning awkwardly, so Baiser took the opportunity to push it the rest of the way in for her. She quickly responded "Thanks!", then moved to the side of the cannon and pressed some kind of mechanism, closing the rear and presumably, making it ready to fire.
Leopard walked up to Baiser, and scratched at the back of her head before speaking.
"Okay, now… the thing I wanted to do was… I wanted to somehow fire the cannon while we were up into Commander's Cupola, ya know, watching over it with our eyes, instead of being inside here, watching through the camera view, are you able to do something about that?"
With the request for help, Baiser scanned around for something to satisfy, and her eyes landed upon a pair of gloves resting on a surface next to the gun camera screen. Manifesting her Crop, she leaned over to whack one glove, impaling it on one spike of Enormita's star.
After just a moment of Magic rushing into the object, her ability imbued it with motion, and capability to follow orders. The material transformed from fabric to shiny black leather, the velcro patches turning into belts with buckles, it inflated as though there were a person's hand inside, and soon enough, it floated into the air, pulling itself off the golden star of her weapon.
"Hehe… this is a pretty good solution, I think."
The hand floated over to Leopard to poke and pinch her cheeks in a cute manner. Baiser broke out her voice to command the simple creature.
"Schiavo, honey, I need you to grab that joystick, over there."
Baiser pointed with her weapon, and the gloves obeyed, floating over to the controls to wrap around the handle.
"Good, now, Leopard-chan is now Leopard-sama, to you, when she commands, you follow, is that understood?"
The animated leather flashed a thumbs up.
"Excellent, now, shall we, Commander Leopard?"
"Hell yeah."
Leopard again moved to the big hatch at the back-left of the turret, but knowing how they crammed together previously, Baiser looked around and quickly spotted an additional hatch to the middle-right of the space, she sauntered over past the cannon one last time before undoing a latch and giving the slab of steel a nice shove, her Magically-Enhanced strength this time making lift it a piece of cake.
"You watching from there? Alright… okay, you ready, Baisa-chaaan~?"
"As ready as I can be…"
"You ready, Alice-chaaan~?"
She nodded.
"Okay then!"
"ONE!"
"TWO!!"
"THREE!!!"
Leopard raised her hand into the air, the pose of someone about to bring it down with a firm gesture, perhaps a signal for a match to start, or in this case…
"FIRE!!"
… the firing of the cannon.
**KA-PPPOOOWWW!!!**
So many heavy sensations hit her at once, the bright orange burst of light almost-flashbanged Baiser as the shockwave of the cannon firing hit her, her lungs were compacted under the force, her breath almost literally taken from her as the air left her body, she quickly fought to stabilize herself, losing balance as the vehicle rocked back and forth under the recoil of the weapon.
She recovered just in time to look up again, seeing a bright-yellow point of light strike the side of the target they had placed. Instead of exploding the way she expected, the entire other side of the unfortunate thing burst outward in a storm of yellow, orange, and red glowing steel fragments, a satisfying spread in a perfect angular shape.
The one side of the remaining hulk of the former toy looked like a snapshot of a bursting balloon, yet the only sign of damage on the side facing them was a perfectly neat, fiery glow of a 120mm sized circular hole, punched where the shot impacted.
Catching her breath, she looked over at her friend. Leopard had such a look of unrestrained joy on her face, her usually dark, wine-red eyes had the great and terrible shine of the burning wreck in front of them. A look of insanity, such an expression of genuine enjoyment from the destruction in front of them, she looked so cute. Baiser mused to herself.
Well… I do 'mess with' Magical Girls all the time so… I really can't call Kiwi-chan Evil for enjoying this…
This… is what I came here for, to see this new side of Leopard-chan.
Leopard squealed with excitement, bouncing around in her seat as she tried to move around in the little space afforded by her circular hatch.
"Uweeheee~! That was so awesome! I wanna do it again! Again!!"
"Hold on, Leopard-chaaan~! Lemme catch my - huh?"
It was happening again, but somehow, in the reverse way. The sounds of rubbery metal stretching and reverberating perforated the environment, now coming to the Evil Villains much clearer than the fire in the distance, and soon enough, the reason was obvious.
"Oi! The tank's shrinking! Alice! What's the…"
Leopard turned Alice around, and quickly identified the case. No time to shout dramatically about it, she instead swiftly picked up the little child and carried her own, stepping out onto the ground and pulling her feet out of the tank as it deflated all the way down to regular size, the sounds of steel turned into plastic again, before it all stopped. The grandiose vehicle before had returned to a simple model of one.
"What happened, Leopard?"
"Nero-Alice-chan here musta conked her head on the edge of the tank for that to have happened, look."
Baiser gasped "Oh no!"
She quickly rushed over and cooed "Oh, poor baby…" and took her into her own hands. Lifting up her hair to confirm the bruise on her forehead, not unlike the one she got a while back.
"Let's go back home, quickly."
"Yeah…"
Baiser opened a portal, a swirl of black bubbles warping into a cloudy circle, and walked through, and a now mildly depressed Leopard followed behind while a brief shine shucked off her villainous form for her, the best time of recent days being cut short by an minor incident.
"Man, that sucks… I wanted to shoot the big cannon a lot more…"
"I know, I know… but we needed to get Korisu-chan back to her home, okay?"
"I know that! I just… feel kinda sucky now…"
Utena huffed at the remark.
"You were having a good time, huh?"
Kiwi threw her hands up, and spoke with mild frustration.
"I was! It was the time of my life! Yet it was so short! I wanted to drive more! Crush sh*t! Blow other sh*t up! I wanted to try and ramp off one of the dunes and shoot while in the air! I wanted to do plenty of cool stuff out there!"
She flopped onto her bed, sighed, and rolled over, facing the wall.
Utena felt her annoyances, of course Kiwi was angry about her fun time being cut short, but there was nothing that could be done about it.
She came up to Kiwi in her bed, came close by her side and whispered into her ear.
"Hey, it'll be okay, we can try and do that thing again at any time, right?"
"This weekend might be coming to an end but… there will still be the next one, and the one after that."
Kiwi turned over slightly, following Utena's words.
"You mean..?"
"What? I drag you to Magical Girl events sometimes, right? It's only right I spend some time indulging in whatever you wanna do, and we'll prepare better next time, cars to cruch... more targets to shoot at..."
She lit up with realization.
"Really?!"
Utena only smiled.
"YAY I WUV YOU!! I WANNA PWAY WIT A P.1000 RATTE NEXT TIME!!"
"Unf!! Ya gotta… be a little more… gentle with those… Love Pounces™… Kiwi-chan… and I... don't even know what... a P.1000 is!"
"Kiwi-chan~! Utena-chan~! Dinner's ready!! I made Hotdogs and Macaroni and Cheese~!"
"Ahh! There we are! Come on let's eat Utena-chan!"
"Alright then…"
As they both got up to leave the room, Utena spoke one more time.
"Wait! Just a second!"
"Hrnk? What is it?"
"Don't hide stuff from me! I didn't think you had interests besides 'being cute'! You gotta be more like yourself, Kiwi-chan!"
Kiwi only scoffed.
"Don't give me a Tres Magia-style lecture on 'being yourself'..."
"I'm completely serious."
Utena came up close, and grabbed Kiwi from behind as she tried to leave the room again.
"You don't have to be all gushing over tanks and going to every military event or anything, like you said, people don't really share your interests right?"
"... Right?"
"But you have me. I do understand how it feels when other people just don't care about what you care about. So, I'll be here for you. I don't know much about tanks and stuff but I care about what you care about, okay?"
Kiwi looked a little uncharacteristically nervous about it, but at least looked comforted by Utena, maybe she pressured her a little too much… but it seems to have worked.
"...Okay, I gotcha, Utena-chan…"
She turned to the door, but was interrupted one more time.
"And Kiwi?"
"What?"
"Tonight, I'll be providing you with cuddles! As my apology for our fun time getting cut short."
"Wha- I'm supposed to be the provider of cuddles! And don't apologize for - "
She was cut off from speaking, as Utena came up quickly to bring Kiwi into a tight hug.
"NOPE~! Regardless of what happened, I'm making sure you're nice and happy! Now, let's get our dinner!"
"Yeah… let's go! My mom's food is pretty great, you'll love it!"
