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October 31st, 2017 marked the occurrence of two special occasions for Kalani Mahsa.

Halloween was one of them, of course- the day where Kalani got to dress up in fancy costumes and get free candy for it- but there was also one other thing that made this day special, and that was her birthday, which also fell on this date. Not only did she get free food, but she got presents, too.

And if she got extra candy because it was her birthday, then who was she to say no? Kalani loved free things, especially when there was little to no effort involved to obtain them. It was too bad her birthday only came once a year, though it didn’t stop her from lying and claiming that it was sometimes.

For this Halloween, Kalani had gone as a fancy witch, similar to the costume she had worn to the masquerade ball the other week, but even fancier. It was something she had insisted on, having more than one costume- she couldn’t possibly be caught out in public wearing the same thing twice- it was a fashion faux pas, Kalani had claimed. Besides, she was the birthday girl, which meant she had to be the star of the show… at least in her mind, and thus, a new costume was granted to her. As with previous years, Kalani had posed for a couple of pictures for her mother, for the family photo album, and then it was time for trick-or-treating.

This year’s candy haul was fairly average, with maybe a few extra pieces here and there, and Kalani couldn’t help but feel just a little slighted, if not even a little offended. It was her birthday! How could they not see that she had earned the right to more candy? Before she could further feel victimized over her whole ordeal, Kalani soon stopped as she found herself encountering a strange creature. At first glance, it appeared to be a fluffy white cat, which would have been considered harmless enough, but to Kalani, who had marathoned one too many episodes of Madoka Magica and considered herself fairly genre savvy, there was something… suspicious about this whole thing.

And if Kalani had to narrow it down to just one thing, it would be the long, fluffy tail. Or maybe even the red eyes, though in the dark, it was hard to tell if they were truly red or not. Or… maybe even just the fact that the cat was staring at her, and in a manner that was more than a little unnerving, as if the cat was… scouting her?

“Nope, nuh uh, not today, Kyubey,” Kalani said, taking a step backwards, “I know your game- I’m onto you- you’re not getting my soul today.”

The cat tilted her head to the side, confused by what she had just heard from this prospective child, a suitable candidate to become a lauded senshi-in-the-making. At least, that’s what she was led to believe, anyhow.

“Kyubey? Are you mistaken? My name isn’t Kyubey…” the cat took an opportune moment to speak up, not paying any thought to the fact that cats speaking in human speech just isn’t… normal. At all.

While Runelucia has enough sense not to behave this intelligently so far, she couldn’t help but simply forget that she should keep feigning being a normal cat. After all, she’s finally given notice by her nominal target: Kalani Mahsa.

“I’m afraid you are mistaken about the soul thing too! I don’t.. really get what you mean by that, but I’m not here to take it! I’m here to, I guess, help you polish it?” Runelucia struggled to put into words her explanation of what she hoped to do, which was awakening this girl right before her. Runelucia found it a bit strange that Kalani would shrink back away from her, but that’s a negligible detail…

“Polish. Right,” Kalani retorted, highly skeptical. After all, here was this not!Kyubey thing, sitting right in front of her, directly addressing her… doing everything short of flat out offering her to make a contract, and it was telling her that she was mistaken about wanting to steal her soul? The fact that none of this was in any way normal or natural at all was far beyond Kalani’s thoughts at this point; she was wholly convinced that the strange cat talking to her at this very moment was none other than the Incubator itself, straight out of the anime and ready to harvest her soul

“Look, I don’t care what you call yourself, but I know a Kyubey when I see one, and you’re definitely a Kyubey,” Kalani told the cat, “You might think you’re being sneaky or whatever, but I already know how this goes.”

“Huh?! H-how’d you know I was sneaking around?” Runelucia exclaimed, eyes widening in shock. Her prospective senshi, Kalani, clearly already has something going in her. It appears that her judgment was spot on.

“A-ahem.. that was unbecoming of me,” Runelucia coughed a bit, “I don’t know who has told you of this nonsense, but that clearly was designed to mislead you…” Rune then stood up from where she sat and gingerly approached Kalani, “If it helps your understanding, just know that I am not here to rob you in any way. I am actually here for another purpose…”

If Rune thought Kalani was any closer to believing her, she was so very wrong. Instead, the teen narrowed her eyes at the cat, crossing her arms over her chest, and overall giving the air of someone still highly skeptical of all of this. Was she even listening to herself? All ‘Kyubey’ was accomplishing was making herself come across as even more suspicious. “You can word it however you want, but I’m not buying it,” she stated, staring down the fluffy cat, “‘Another purpose’? That’s exactly something a Kyubey would say! No, I refuse to think of you as like an angel, or anything helpful.”

Inwardly, Kalani felt more than a little proud of herself over being this self-aware as to know what sort of game the ‘Kyubey’ was up to, giving herself an imaginary pat on the back. That Kalani, so smart, so awesome...she was just so great all around, wasn’t she?

pcolor=#800020]“Well, how about this... give these two things a trial run and let’s see if your impression remains the same,” Rune nodded sagely as she promptly placed a pen into Lani’s hand and a piece of notebook paper with some interesting scrawl over it. The scrawl contained the key magical words, the very words that any prospective senshi candidate is responsible for verbally activating with their own voice. Rune felt confident that Kalani would read the words out loud. It may not be the most glamorous of a debut, but it’ll surely be the start towards something great.

And with that, Runelucia stared expectantly, waiting for the transformation to happen. She could barely contain her excitement in becoming Kalani’s producer remarkable partner in crime or just simply a new cat roommate. She simply has so much to explain to her- the duties she would gain, the glamorous uniform she would wear, the wonderfully unique powers she would possess, and so much more…

Kalani stared dubiously at the childish scrawl written on the paper presented to her, unsure of what to make of it. This wasn’t going the way she had anticipated, but she still kept her guard up. Kyubey didn’t just hand people magic pens and give them a piece of paper with instructions written on it, he took their souls and put it into a pretty gem that you had to keep on your person at all times because now your body was just an empty husk and… and…

Well, the teen had to give this weird cat some credit, because she hadn’t straight out jumped to asking if she wanted to make a wish, and maybe she could acknowledge she was wrong about the feline being the Incubator, maybe. And so, she’d hear the cat out just this once, and read aloud the words written on the paper.

“Morishita Power, Make-up?”



Kalani hadn’t been sure what to expect upon reciting the words the cat had provided, but a magical girl transformation into a new outfit… Well, she had expected something like this to happen, but in a different sort of way. So, technically, ‘Kyubey’ wasn’t entirely off the hook, but now she had an entirely new set of questions. “Okay, so this is neat and all, but what is this, and what are you?” the newly christened Chibi Morishita demanded, staring down the fluffy kitten.

“Congratulations on your awakening, senshi Morishita! And, I’m glad you asked!” Runelucia’s tail shot straight up as she grinned and nodded vigorously, ready to answer any inquiry to the best of her ability. “To put it simply, I’m what is known to the Order as a guardian cat. A guardian cat is responsible for guiding all Order senshi. And, in your hands is your own henshin unique pen, and this one here is going to be your own senshi phone, only usable in this form… and then…”

Runelucia proceeded to infodump anything and everything she wanted Morishita to know and remember as a newly awakened senshi. Eventually, after some back and forth, she agreed to temporarily pause the infodumping through bargaining with Morishita about allowing her to live together with her. And thus did her “time to shine” time as a guardian cat began.

[END]