Who Da Boss Lady? 6 (Patreon)

Commissioned by InfiniteChaosRei

Who Da Boss Lady?

Chapter 6

-VB-

She felt tired. 

After the fight, she came back home, opened the window, slipped in, quietly closed it, and undid her transformation by saying “hiding envy.”

She was no longer Clarinette the Envious.

She was just Mari.

And Mari was a killer.

She had killed someone. She didn’t know what to do about that. 

She … she knew that she did something good tonight, though. If she hadn’t taken that monster down, then more people would have been killed and … and eaten. 

She did good. 

She did something right! 

So why did she feel like shit?! Why did everything feel horrible and icky and -?! 

She wanted to cry. 

So she did.

Silently and quietly under the cover of her futon and pillow, she cried herself to sleep.

-VB-

I hovered invisibly above Mari. 

(Because apparently, I could go invisible? There were so many things I could do that I didn’t know how to do before.)

While I floated over her like a coal-sprinkled guardian, I couldn’t help but wonder to myself. 

Did I push her too far too fast? 

…

…

Nah. 

Most magical girls do so much more in far less time! In fact, I’ve done the right thing by respecting her wishes to be as normal as she could possibly be. 

After all, it wasn’t like her being a magical girl lured that monster to our position, right? I’ve felt plenty of monsters all over the place (kind of why I hid inside her bag in school once I reinforced it to be a mini-mana dampener), so it was just our bad luck that we ran into a particularly bad 

But the monster had given me a good chance.

To wet Mai’s hands in blood. 

It was always the first kill that was the hardest, especially for a normal girl like her. 

… Hmm? How did I know this? More of the same thing like my ability to fly and turn invisible that I didn’t know about? 

It wasn’t as if I killed people before! The closest I came to was when I nearly dropped my …

…

…

Drop who?

Drop what?

Drop where? 

I hovered there, lost in my own thoughts and inner turmoil.

Then with a shake of my head, I blurred those thoughts away. 

Those were thoughts for some other time! Right now, I had scouting to do! 

Now that Mari got her hands dirty, she’ll be able to start tasting the fruits of her labor! Tomorrow when she wakes up, she should be able to tell how much stronger she’s become, even if it won’t be much compared to what she already had. 

But that was the beauty of evil! 

Not relying on others but to climb one’s way up to the top by any means necessary! 

She’ll be able to kill so many monsters and absorb their essence and become a great evil magical girl! 

* knEw tht! 

I beL:ieVvvved innn hHhe&r! 

AND SH-.

…

“Wait a minute,” I muttered as I stared down at Mari.

She didn’t feel stronger to my senses.

Why? She was supposed to be stronger now that she killed something and turned its energy into her cr-.

Oohh.

She made a crystal out of whatever she killed, and needed to absorb its energy. 

‘We left the crystal back there.’

With a sigh, I opened her room’s window, left, closed it quietly, and flew over in a hurry. 

Because I may be slightly panicking? 

If someone incompatible with that touched it for too long, then they would be corrupted, and we’ll have all sorts of different problems! 

-VB-

“What can you tell me?” 

Because her friend had decided to not investigate the matter despite the fact that it was her and her peerage’s turn to do so, Sona had come out with her peerage to do the investigation. 

And from what she could tell, there was a lot of exotic energies here that wasn’t holy, devil, or even yokai. 

It was a whole new thing that left her peerage feeling … queasy. 

No, not queasy.

Disturbed. 

Uneasy.

Shivering.

The dead Stray Devil was in and of itself worrisome. This one wasn’t like any other Stray Devil she was expected to run into but something closer to an Ultimate Devil. There were very few Ultimate Devils who were Stray Devils, and none of the ones she knew about had the description of this Stray Devil. Or what was left of it. 

And whatever had struck it had left a giant hole that went deep underground. Deep enough that it would take a lot of work just to cover it up. Thankfully, the two buildings adjacent to the hole in the alley would help cover it up…. Even if the lack of water and sewage service might cause some trouble. More than anything else, those needed to be fixed before they caused problems. 

People can gloss over a lot of things with nary an explanation, but lack of water and sewage service were not things they ignored. In fact, there was a study done back in Lilith about how long humans will ignore certain things under the effect of glamor. 

Food and water were the things they noticed missing first. 

Or in esse-.

“Buchou!” 

Sona blinked and looked slightly to her left into the alley. 

Tsubaki, her Queen and second in both the peerage and the Student Council, walked up to her in a hurry with something in her hand. Then she showed it to her. 

It was … 

“Is it safe?”

“I think it is,” Tsubaki replied. The other glasses-wearing devil didn’t look like she was suffering from any problems. “It isn’t emitting any energy.”

Sona picked it up from Tsubaki’s palm and held it up to her eye level. 

It was a dark crystal. Smoky. Purple. Tyrion purple, in fact. It was -.

Something zipped past her face, and she reeled back far too late. She didn’t get hit, though.

But she noticed something. 

The crystal.

It was missing from her hand. 

“Sorry, sorry!” 

She whirled around and saw … a floating doll? 

Its small arm-wings flapped leisurely, not at all in match with its hovering and lightly bouncing form. Its pupil-less eyes didn’t show who it was looking at. Its easy grin almost disarmed her. 

But it also had the crystal wrapped up in its foot’s claws. 

“It seems we left this thing behind after taking care of the monster! Please forgive us. It’s almost like a nuclear waste product so people who don’t kno-.”

Then it dodged out of the way of Tsubaki’s strike. 

“Wowowowow! No need to get violent!” it squeaked out as it fluttered away erratically. 

But Sona could tell that it wasn’t erratic, only made to look erratic. 

“Return the crystal,” Tsubaki demanded as the rest of Sona’s peerage rushed over. 

“Ah, well,” the thing hissed in a breath. “I really really shouldn’t. You don’t want to end up as some kind of a undead, do you?”

Undead?! 

“That’s what happens to people who aren’t, you know, compatible with this thing’s energy.”

“It wasn’t emitting anything,” Sona remarked with narrowed eyes. 

That made the thing … happy? 

“Oh good! Then Clari’s power is working perfectly! You know, I actually worried a little when I gave her that manufactured power but… Ah. I spoke too much,” it teehee’ed. “We’ll see you later, maybe!” 

Then it tried to fly away. Despite its appearance, it moved fast.

“Oh no, you don’t!” Tomoe, her knight, yelled as she drew her katana and jumped at the flying doll.

… And got countered by one of its wings. 

“Sheesh, young lady! You don’t just attack someone like that!” 

Then it parried and countered.

With its stubby tiny wing. 

But whatever happened happened and something invisible yet tangible struck Tomoe in her guts. 

The twin tailed girl choked out a gasp before she was flying away almost horizontally before crashing into one of the alley buildings. 

Sona’s eyes widened when she saw the trajectory of her knight’s fall. 

“Momo, catch Tomoe!” she shouted, and saw one of her bishops activating her magic to do just that. 

When she whirled around to chase down the bat-doll-thing… it was gone. 

Her shoulders drooped. 

“... What the hell was that?” she muttered to herself. 

It was obvious that it was involved with whatever had taken out the Ultimate-class Stray Devil. 

She shivered. 

-VB-

“You want me to …”

“Yes.”

“Really?”

“What? It’s necessary for you to grow stronger!” 

“If I have to do that with this sharp thing, I don’t wanna!” 

“Girl, it’s only sharp until it goes inside of you.”

“No!”

“Ugh! Just hurry it up and eat it!” 

“It’s a rock!”

“It’s not a rock. It’s the condensed energy of your first kill!” 

“...”

“... Please don’t look so disgusted. That’s just how these things are. I mean it’s better than what some of the cults do.”

“Do I want to know?”

“Raw cannibalism.”

She started gagging. 

“Hurry it up. There’s a time limit on this. If you don’t use it quickly enough, then it’ll dissipate and act like a blanket fog of poison.”

Mari looked at Venalita in alarm. 

And she quickly swallowed the rough crystal.

… And it disappeared? 

“Oh dear.”

“What?!” 

“There may have been more power in that thing than I thought.”

“W-What do you mean?” she asked as she felt something start to come up. Not like a vomit but a heat. 

Venalita laughed nervously. 

“Please don’t explode?” 

“Explod-?!”

Then she felt it. 

The heat turned into an inferno.

And she screamed as she dropped to the floor. 

In her pain, Mari barely recognized her parents barging into her room and then taking her away out of the house and into the car. 

But throughout it all, she saw Venalita hanging out, her parents somehow not noticing her but always near her, looking nervous.

She was going to punch the shit out of her the very instant she got better.