Lurking

Chapter 12: Angel

A man runs down a dark street in the dead of the night, the rains coming down hard and it's sound is interrupted by the desperate escape of the injured man on the street. A portion of his right arm severed off, he's dripping blood as he runs into a rubbish bin knocking it over as he runs for dear life. He turns a corner and tries to run into the subway station below bu suddenly Swim Swim appears in front of him. He stops and shrieks in terror as she raises ruler high in the air and cuts into his stomach. He crumbles over to the ground as Swim Swim slowly walks towards him then she stabs him repeatedly, over and over until his body ceases movement.

Once she sees the life has completely been drained from his eyes, she sinks back down into the ground and rises in front of a crying child, a familiar boy with blond hair.

"Mommy! Daddy! Wake up!" The boy screams desperately.

Next to him are two bodies, one female and one male. They have stab wounds and are on the wet floor, his father's soul leaves his body just as Swim Swim arrives. The boy looks up at Swim Swim who's looking down trying to hide the sadness in her eyes.

"<If I had arrived a moment sooner...>" She says to herself in Japanese.

The emotional child runs to Swim Swim and squeezes her tightly out of desperation. She drops Ruler on the floor and hugs the child back. The anger inside of her was brewing as she looked up into the dark sky above, not a star in sight.

---

In the morning, Ayana arrived at school and sat at her desk, the sky was cloudy and the mood was low. Charlie wasn't in school that day and she knew why... The boys parents had been murdered, that guy she killed last night was the man who did it. She was satisfied that she managed to slay the criminal, but seeing Charlie not sitting next to her that morning was heart splitting.

"...Charlie" She says to herself.

After going through a painful day without her friend. She begins her night as Swim Swim on the streets of the city. That night she was a little sloppy, the thoughts of her friend going through pain were effecting the way she fought and thought. She's shoved to the ground by a mugger, a woman looks on terrified as the girl struggles to keep the mugger from stabbing her, but she reaches in Calamity Mary's bag and pulls a Glock 17. She fires it into the muggers wasit and he screams and heels over in wheezing in pain.

She takes the wallet in his hand and gives it to the shaky woman before sinking into the ground. When she rises she sits down on the curb of a city block and sighs letting her head rest on her arms. The sounds of the city became louder and louder in the background she hears footsteps walking towards her so she looks up and sees Trifle, she has box braids this time around and a different pair of sunglasses with circle shaped frames.

"You look down and gloomy" She says while holding a cup of coffee.

She has another cup in her hand but this one has hot chocolate, she hands her the cup, reluctantly Swim Swim takes it. Trifle sits down next to her dusting off the suit she's wearing, she sees Swim Swim's uptight about something and decides to ask about it.

"... So what's wrong?"

"I don't want to talk about it..."

Trifle sighs, "So it's gonna be like that huh?"

Swim Swim takes a sip of the hot chocolate and sighs, her breathe was visible in the air as she sighs deeply, "There was this couple, they were going home with their son. A mugger came out of the blue and attacked them for their valuables, I arrived too late to save the couple and now the kid's an orphan. I... I just wish I was faster... That I could have stopped it from happening"

She sniffles a little, Trifle is surprised to see her crying but doesn't really show it.

"We all have our bad days on the job, it comes with the territory. When shit like that happens it's better to just pick your head up and keep on going, besides your Level 75 right now, that's impressive for someone like you" Trifle answers, putting her hand on her back.

"I've gone through this feeling once... I don't want to go through it again"

"You don't have to go through it, not alone. You can talk to me, other girls, whoever you feel comfortable sharing this with. Just know, you're not the only one this happens to"

Swim Swim find Trifles words a comfort so she gives her a hug, "Thank you"

Trifle is surprised by her doing this but manages a smile and hugs her back. When she sperates Swim Swim picks ruler and her cup of hot chocolate up from the side walk and jumps up into the air. Trifle watches as she jumps higher and higher until she's gone.

"You get em girl" She says with a grin on her face.

Later that night after fulfilling her duties for the night Swim Swim instead of going home stops at Charlie's apartment. Ayana knocks on the door and waits for an answer, the girl is holding a Nintendo Switch and some candy, she waits a bit and then knocks again. The door opens slowly and standing there is none other than Charlie, his hair is a mess, he's crying, he has bags in his eyes and he looks like he's been through hell.

When Ayana sees him she wraps his arms around him, Charlie sobs and hugs her back.

"How are you feeling" Ayana asks.

"Worse" Charlie mumbles.

"It's okay, I'm here for you" Ayana says gently.

"Thank you" Charlie sobs.

"Wanna play something on my Switch?" Ayana asks.

Charlie nods sheepishly and let's Ayana come inside. The two have some fun together playing video games until neither one of them could stay awake, both of them ended up falling asleep peacefully on the living room couch together under a blanket. A chime goes off, it's Ayanas magical phone waking her up. She opens it and sees she ranked first out of all the magical girls for the week in terms of collecting Candies.

She satisfied with the rankings and smiles approvingly, she closes the phone and stuffs it in her backpack. Then, she looks at Charlie who's sleeping peacefully, like an angel. She can't help but feel she needs to protect and keep him safe... And that's exactly what she planned to do.