An Unborn Hero

In a stone room, a group of zycrian mages poked and prodded their experimental test subject. There was a certain resigned look about her eye-stalks, having been the target of their experiments for far longer than was comfortable.

Their latest attempt, Seagrass Green, gave her a level of coverage that even Grace would be happy with, and it didn't leave her immobile or trap her tentacles, but she had significant doubts whether it constituted a 'magical girl'. Long, thick strands of seagrass sprouted from her back, falling all the way to the floor, which kinda looked like a skirt, if you squinted hard enough. More sprouted from her head, falling down her neck, hiding almost all of her flesh. Her eye stalks poked out, and she could weave her tentacles through the grass easily enough, but it was still weird.

At least the seagrass was pleasantly slimy against her flesh, unlike the dry regular grass of the previous attempt.

"The spell appears to be stable and holding," said one of the researchers. "Let's move on to tests of physical ability."

"Not even going to ask if I'm comfortable?" groaned the resigned guinea-slug as she wrapped her tentacles around a series of weights and attempted to lift them, much to her surprise discovering that she had indeed gained a small boost.

"A... success?" asked the researcher, sounding somewhat suspicious. Their experiments thus far had not gone well.

"I wouldn't go that far," said another. "An improvement, certainly, but she's only able to lift ten percent more than normal. The jellax reported a consistent doubling at similar skill levels."

"The jellax also reported that designs that do not involve a dress are significantly weakened," pointed out a third researcher. "I do not believe that constitutes a dress."

"We already tried a ballgown, without success."

"A human dress."

"May I offer a suggestion?" tried their test subject, only to be ignored.

"But then we're back to the problem of a human dress being so ill-fitting."

The trio of slug-like researchers began a spirited debate, each sketching out their own designs of what they hoped would best match the parameters of the spell while being compatible with their body structure.

Their test subject, momentarily abandoned, sighed. She knew she was only there because she was young and female, and hence could be the subject of the spell without the need for sub-skills, but she really wished the researchers would listen to her. After all, for all that they were knowledgeable about magic, what did they know about fashion?

"For friendship and justice, demon slaying magical girl Seaweed Green, transform," she whispered, and, despite her class of [Apprentice Seamstress], she began to glow.

"What?" exclaimed one of the 'professionals', spinning around, only to see their test subject effortlessly lifting the heaviest weight in a single tentacle.

"You really should listen... to..." started the zycrian, still sheathed in a green glow, before the lights cut out and the weight slammed back to the floor. She didn't topple over, but only because zycrian were naturally stable. The only signs of her unconsciousness were her drooping eye stalks and slack tentacles.

Alas, [Apprentice Seamstress] was not an occupation that offered much mana, and so no-one was able to view her successful costume design. Although, given her class change to [Magical Slug], perhaps her next attempt would be more successful.

A certain humanoid [Magical Slimegirl] halfway across the continent would be happy if it was. After all, she needed teammates.

Rose sat alone in her borrowed home, wondering who would turn up first. Rrillandral wasn't planning on returning, so it was a competition between Grace—assuming she didn't get thrown into the castle dungeon for kidnapping the [King]—Kellela and Hayedalf, or her own parents, who were on their way back from Karn's Vigil.

The winners turned out to be her parents.

"You don't look happy to see us?" observed Melody.

"Oh. Yes, I am! Very much so! I was just hoping I'd have some moral support for this."

"For 'this'? Am I that scary that you need moral support to greet me?" laughed Platus.

"No, for telling you that I've agreed to let Grace date me. Except that because she's a princess, apparently that means we're engaged now?"

"Oh? So she finally won you over?" said Melody, joining in the laughter.

"My goodness! That phrasing!" snorted Platus, almost doubling over as he struggled to breathe.

"Uh..." said Rose, that not quite being the reaction she'd expected. "What's wrong with that phrasing? She was the one that talked me into it... And I expected a little more surprise."

"Why should we be surprised? If you were against it, you should have told her clearly ages ago, but instead you've been stringing her along. I'd like to think my daughter isn't someone who would toy with another's emotions like that."

Rose—who had thought that she had told her clearly, back in the demonic forest—considered that, and had to admit that even while on watch duty that night, she'd merely tried to convince Grace that her feelings were transient, rather than saying anything about her own.

"Huh..." she commented, realising that perhaps she'd been in a spot of denial. "Anyway, what about you two? I see you got promoted."

Platus flashed his silver plate proudly. "Yup. You're looking at fresh silver ranked adventurers."

"What he isn't telling you is that pretty much every adventurer that took part in the defence of our border got a promotion. Not to mention the fact that at your next evaluation, you'll certainly jump straight to gold."

"Gold?! But I..." started Rose before the door opened for a second time, on this occasion revealing a slightly dazed Grace.

"Did you know..." she stage-whispered conspirationally, "Father had no intention of letting Gordon have me, even if not for the succession issues!"

"No?" hazarded Rose, wondering what the correct answer was supposed to be.

"And... and... when Father was [Crown Prince], he spent two years trying to foist the title onto his brother! He assumed I'd want to lose [First Princess], and that all the magical girl stuff was a cheap price to pay for escaping! Said he'd gladly have done it himself, obscene dress included, so I tried to cast [Magical Girl Transformation] on him but it didn't work because his hair's the wrong colour. Need to bribe a maid to spike his shampoo..."

"Are you drunk again?" asked Rose.

Grace pondered. "Maybe?" she admitted, without doing anything about it. "Mother did turn up with a few bottles. But that's not the point! The point is that... that..."

"That you really needed that talk?" interjected Platus.

"That it wasn't just him missing things?" asked Rose. "That you missed stuff too?"

"Yes!" exclaimed Grace, then fell over onto a sofa.

Rose poked her, to no apparent effect.

"I'm a little worried about what he's going to do to my old etiquette tutor," Grace continued, her voice muffled by the way she was laying face down. "I may have hated her, but I'm fairly sure she wasn't malicious, as such. She was just very... traditional."

"I remember you telling me that royalty don't make a habit of cutting people's heads off," reassured Rose.

"No, no-one will be losing any heads, but she might wake up tomorrow morning to find herself surrounded by knights wielding her own fan collection. Is it bad that even if half of me feels bad about it, the other half kinda wants to watch?"

Before Rose could answer, the door clicked open once more, this time to reveal a distressed Kellela and thoughtful Hayedalf.

"What's wrong?" asked Rose, switching her focus immediately. "How's Mystery?"

"She's okay, but they suspect there'll be some amount of permanent memory loss," answered Hayedalf.

"Oh..." said Rose, once again unsure of what the correct response should be. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Then we'll just need to make some new memories!" exclaimed the muffled Grace, not sitting up for the newcomers.

"If only it was that simple. How can we replace everything she's lost?" sighed Kellela.

"It's too soon to worry about that," said Hayedalf. "We don't know how much she's lost. Best case, it's only the past few days. We'll need to wait for her to recover enough to use [Astral Projection] again."

"If she's forgotten everything, she won't be able to use [Astral Projection]," pointed out Platus, which just made Kellela's mood even worse.

"What if she's forgotten enough that she can't use skills, but has just enough self awareness to be conscious?" asked Kellela, on the verge of tears. "Imagine being trapped like that for years!"

"We'll make regular visits to the temple. We can both learn [Telepathy]. There are things we can do to ensure she isn't going to suffer like that," said Hayedalf reassuringly.

"Actually, there's something else that I don't get, that could be related," said Grace, finally pushing herself up from the sofa and purging herself of alcohol. "Back in the forest, the demon lord was obviously kinda dumb. It couldn't even speak properly."

"Yes? It hadn't hatched," replied Rose. "Not every foetus is as much of an overachiever as Mystery."

"I know. So what happened at the end? If the thing that teleported us out was nothing but a purified version of the demon lord, it shouldn't have had a sudden boost of intelligence. It even said please. Maybe whatever memories Mystery lost didn't simply vanish."

"Oh... Seriously? Surely not..."

The party shared a look in which much information was conveyed, despite the lack of any words being exchanged. It started by pointing out the utter ridiculousness of the suggestion, followed that up with a reminder that Mystery was involved, and thus common sense need not apply, then morphed into a sort of resigned acceptance.

In the depths of the former demonic forest, hints of green were beginning to appear as new leaves sprouted from long-dead branches. Around a few particular trees, where the usually incompatible mana and miasma were mingling particularly vigorously, there were even a few new buds.

One of the buds—swollen to half a foot across—split down the middle, rolling open into a giant purple flower that didn't at all seem to match the tree it had sprouted from.

Curled up in the middle of that flower, a small, winged, cat-like creature mewled. It stretched itself, then shook out its luxurious purple fur. It looked around somewhat uncertainly with deep black eyes, not entirely sure who it was or where it had come from, but knowing full well its purpose in life. The flower symbol picked out on its forehead in contrasting yellow fur glistened as it unconsciously tapped into its magic, lifting itself into the air on wings that would otherwise be far too small to support its weight. The creature mewled one more time as it set out on its mission to spread its knowledge of the magical powers of friendship among the children of the world, whether they wanted to learn or not.

A hundred more buds split open throughout the forest as the purified demon lord flexed its will throughout what would soon become known as the enchanted forest. Perhaps this new 'demon lord' had been slightly tainted by a small amount of foreign memory it had accidentally merged with during its creation, but if so, no-one could ever prove it. After all, nothing like it had ever existed before. There wasn't even a name for what it was. How could anyone know how it was supposed to behave?

Any resemblance its creations bore to other make-believe creatures could easily be completely coincidental.

Within the warm confines of her mother, an unborn hero slept soundly. While not as much of herself had been lost as Kellela feared, the extensive damage nevertheless meant it would be a long time before she awoke. Until then, without a fully grown brain, it wouldn't be completely accurate to say that she dreamed, but there was nevertheless a small twitch, a miniscule reaction as a chime sounded in the unconscious depths of her soul.

ding

Achievement unlocked: [I Broke Reality, And Now the Administrators Have Decided To Take A Vacation For The Sake Of Their Sanity]