POV: Wanderer
"You were foolish for making a deal with a demon" I inform Isla through her mirror. She makes a face as a pipe crashes against the glass, fracturing my view of her. Within seconds she has waved her hands over the glass and fixed it. For such a weak creature, she really has developed an aptitude for magic.
"If you'd come to me sooner, I wouldn't have had to do it. Whose fault is that?" Behind her, an ear-shattering howl shakes the apartment, and I'm certain that if she could bleed she'd be oozing blood from the ears.
We've just informed Shumei that we're going to need to break off the demon deal that Isla made with her, and she's less than thrilled with that decision. Our only option now is to keep her entirely focused on her passion for anime so that she does not become more violent and sinister and do horrible things to Isla's soul.
Isla wants to know if she even has a soul, and I'm troubled. Even a short time ago, she wouldn't have taken the time or energy to care about that, and I'm not sure what could be causing Magical Girls to stray so frequently now. It's troubling, that there could be something I don't know. I once called myself all-powerful in this universe, but as I've learned, there are some things that even I can't do.
One such thing is getting rid of Shumei. If she were an ordinary being I could kill her or blast her to oblivion or even make her vanish and deposit her somewhere else in the universe. I suppose I still could do that last thing, but Shumei would still find her way back here, angrier than ever and with very confused witnesses in tow.
It's always unfortunate and perilous to break a contract with a demon. Even I can only protect Isla so much while she tries to complete the rites to sever the contract, and Shumei can still try to haunt her. While under contract, the demon's power over Isla is near absolute, and we've been locked in a battle of magic for hours.
It's not as dramatic as it seems. Mostly it's just Shumei shouting and trashing Isla's home while Isla tries to distract her with an episode of Clannad, as one would try to distract a small toddler. The sad thing is, it's partially working, which is what's allowed Isla to survive this long. Otherwise her entire building would be trapped in a whirlwhind of dark energy right now.
Isla gets hit in the face with a spoon, which she catches and points accusingly at me. "I blame you for all of this."
"Look, life is like a story. We figure it out as we go. Could you do it perfectly?" I ask her, although I've accused myself of the same thing when I allowed people to die rather than rewriting their deaths. I could give everyone a perfect and controlled life...but should I? I could make myself known to everyone, but there could be consequences if I do. All my problems, it seems, stem from these damned demons. Even Shumei - I've seen what she can do at full power. She looks all cute and bouncy and innocent, but Isla's been deceived by that appearance. Shumei is more than a little ridiculous, but as a demon, she has real and terrifying power, and barely-suppressed wrath at her core.
Just as Isla starts singing loudly along to the closing theme song, a tug in my consciousness, alerting me to just how much attention I've been devoting to Isla and Shumei. I let my eye follow the call as a compelling whisper echoes in my mind. Sarasface...Sarasface... it whispers, before my vision is obscured by a mass of writhing maggots.
Troublesome, very much so. There's never been anything I've had to fight so hard to see in this world. I shouldn't give up on clearing the maggots from my vision, but I'm trying to focus on protecting Isla from the demon wrath. It's Platinum who called, the Magical Girl who almost became human. Now she's fading, and what happened there? All my plans are crumbling, and I'm too late to recall her to life. I see a flash of a girl etching Platinum's name onto her arm - who is she? I must find her again, but she vanishes and my eyes go searching wildly without control.
I almost don't recognize the Miquo'te child lying on the ground - when did this happen? It's faded, as if my view has been drawn into the past. But it's Observer, I know without a doubt. I haven't seen Observer in over a century; she withdrew from the world. What could have happened to make her appear in Miquo'te form in this universe?
My focus is jolted by the sound of Isla's scream.
