Not Your Usual Magical Girl

Teaming up with the vampire had been a mistake, Cole decided as he listened to Robert begin another long winded rant.

Their conversation had started out light and guarded. Cole had made the decision very quickly to hide anything about his isekai, and at first the vampire had seemed to be just as reticent.

But as the conversation continued, and Cole had failed to understand more and more references to things like ‘the Brick’ and ‘the Bureau’, the vampire had slowly changed.

He seemed to assume that Cole was some country bumpkin who understood nothing about ‘real’ magic, and so had taken it upon himself to explain everything he thought Cole needed to know.

About himself. In exhausting detail.

“To think that the filthy creature would dare to touch a direct descendent of the Primos Vampirus!” He said for the fifth time in half an hour. “It should have known that such an action would result with its head on a pike within a fortnight. After all, it is the duty of any true vampire to avenge such an insult!”

Cole was well past listening at this point. He had been interested at first, but by now the unceasing chatter was starting to grind on his very last nerve.

He didn’t even understand why the vampire was here. From what he understood, the vampire and the dragon met. Then the dragon insulted, and possibly cheap-shotted him.

It didn’t seem to be the kind of thing to declare blood-feud over to Cole, but by this point he was too distracted to care. Instead he had started imagining different ways to make the vampire shut up as a coping mechanism.

Currently, he was repeatedly visualizing smashing the vampire over the back of the head with the flat of his sword to knock him out.

It wasn’t like anyone would blame him. Not even the other vampires.

From what Cole could piece together from his rants, Robert was some kind of vampiric nepo-baby who had managed to royally piss off the other vampires to the point that they had banished him to the middle of nowhere.

Cole wouldn’t be surprised if they outright thanked him for knocking the guy over the head.

“But to think!” Robert ranted again, loud enough this time to catch Cole’s attention again, “That my own kin would deny my right to lead them in battle against the greatest of prey! They would not even allow me the use of the great artifacts to bring in the beast.”

That at least was a helpful piece of information. Cole had started paying attention again when he’d first heard Ross mention magical super weapons, but the vampire only ever brought them up to rant about how unfair it was he couldn’t use them.

Shockingly, the other vampires were not willing to use their rare and incredibly valuable artifacts unless they believed they had a solid shot at defeating the dragon.

Which Robert did not. Not that the narcissistic nightwalker would ever admit it.

Cole’s mind began to wander again and he distractedly looked down to begin analyzing the tracks they were following. They came in pairs, spaced forty or fifty feet apart. Almost like the dragon was hopping, though Cole didn’t know enough about animals or tracking to figure out what that meant.

Then he paused. Something was wrong…

Robert had stopped talking. Cole’s head quickly came back up, only for his jaw to drop open as he realized what had happened.

They had found the dragon’s lair.

It wasn’t exactly hard to miss. Ahead of them the forest had been reduced to ashes and blacked husks in a line almost half a mile thick.

Beyond that a great swath of earth had been torn up, raised into an enormous wall of twisted stone taller than an apartment building. The area the dirt and stone had been taken from was now a chasm, radiating light and wavering heat that Cole could see even from where he stood in the woods.

The footprints ended at an wide stone bridge that crossed over the moat. Behind it a stone arch, fifty feet high and equally wide, allowed passage through the wall.

The two of them shot each other a glance, then Robert threw his head back and started walking again.

Cole swallowed, then followed.

As they drew closer to the bridge he could see gothic ironwork forming rails on the sides, contrasting the rough stone of the walls. Reaching the front of the bridge, a questing glance showed the source of the moat’s light.

It was lava.

The dragon had a lava moat. A river of molten stone running through a channel almost twenty feet wide and twice that deep.

Cole went to swallow again but his tongue stuck in his throat, the moisture wicked away by the stifling heat around him.

A glance at Robert showed an identical shell shocked expression.

“This should not be here…” The vampire whispered.

Cole waited for him to continue, but when Robert failed to say anything, he was forced to take the lead and begin walking again.

Then he paused mid stride. Walking straight into a dragon’s lair might not exactly be the best idea.

A few steps took him to the side of the bridge and he began creeping along, following the twisting ironwork.

A moment later he heard Robert begin to pad along after him.

They quickly reached the end of the bridge and passed under the arch, only to pause. Once again staring up in a mixture of shock and awe.

The wall extended for almost a mile in diameter, encircling what looked like the grown up version of the Roman Parthenon. They faced the front wall, a gigantic roofed edifice that must have been hundreds of feet tall. Far beyond that in the distance, Cole could see a dome that could swallow a sports arena crowning the gargantuan building.

The mass of gray stone that made up the construction had been taken from the ground below, forming a second, larger moat that traveled all the way from the outer wall to the foundations of the building.

As it turned out, the pair were crouched not at the end of the bridge, but almost the beginning of it.

They took it in for a moment, before Cole finally turned back to Robert.

“So what’s the plan?” Cole whispered, then muttered a command to Rainbow to show him his stat sheet again.

He eyed it worriedly as the vampire paused to think. His stat growth from proximity to the vampire had slowly tapered off as time passed. Now he was sitting in the twenties for all physical stats.

Physical Powers! Magical Excellence!

Strength- 5 (+21) Mana- 1

Agility- 3 (+27) Sensitivity- 0

Constitution-6 (+19) Knowledge- 0

They were certainly a lot higher than when he started, and he could feel the difference in the way he saw and moved. But staring back up at the small mountain of a building, he didn’t know if it would matter.

“Simple,” Robert proclaimed in a soft, but still dramatic voice, “You shall attack and distract the dragon while I circle around and ambush it from behind!”

Cole had to hold back a grimace. The suggestion was unfortunately what he had expected to hear from the vampire. An attempt to use Cole as bait while leaving himself the chance to run.

“Any other plans past that though?” Cole asked in a voice he hoped was casual, “I mean, we need to have a backup plan in case the dragon survives your ambush.”

The vampire shot him a raised eyebrow. He clearly wasn't in any doubt over his ability to kill the dragon.

Or Cole's chances of survival if they followed his plan.

Cole wanted to continue protesting, but the reality of the situation was pretty bleak. The fact of the matter was that he was not going to be able to convince the headstrong vampire of any other course of action.

So that left him with a simple choice. He could attack the dragon with, or without Robert. Meaning the only real option was to go along with the vampire’s suicide plan and hope to survive it.

So Cole just nodded his head and turned around to keep walking. The stifling heat washed over him again, even hotter than before, but he grit his teeth and kept moving.

An enormous hole cut out of the front wall allowed entrance into the cathedral. Creeping up to the one side, they took turns peering inside.

The interior was a simple stone hall, with two rows of pillars on either side supporting a vaulted ceiling a hundred yards across. The height and thickness of redwoods, they lined the corridor like silent watchmen, looming over Cole as he looked in on them. Burning braziers hung in between the pillars, casting a wavering light that only barely managed to illuminate the imposing structure.

Much further into the building, in a wider area Cole was pretty sure sat underneath the dome, he spotted movement. He glanced back at Robert, and the vampire nodded. He had seen it too.

The duo carefully entered, then silently crept from pillar to pillar. Pausing behind each one, they would glance around it to check for the dragon. Though they never actually spotted anything, to Cole’s simultaneous relief and frustration.

Eventually though, once Cole had lost count of the number of times they had run the distance, he found himself dashing towards a new kind of pillar.

Where the others were the size of trees, the one he approached could fit a house within its footprint. Looking up, he saw that they had finally reached the area underneath the dome.

Once the two reached the shadow of the pillar, Robert turned to look at Cole. He quickly pointed towards his eyes then around himself before creeping around the side of the pillar. Cole imitated him, heading around the other side to examine the room.

He took in the mad architecture with wide eyes. Above him, the vaulted room he had entered through transitioned into the vast dome. Four of the larger sized pillars rising hundreds of feet skyward to support it. Beneath its vast cover, Cole found the first source of color in the building.

It was the dragon’s hoard.

A disappointing one. Instead of mounds of gold and silver, a small hill had been constructed entirely from books. Hundreds of feet across and dominating the center of the room, the messy pile of tomes rose up almost a hundred feet before the top caved inward to form a sort of nest,

Cole briefly read a few of the covers. The ‘Effects of Rhetoric on Emphatic Magic’ sat on top of a reference dictionary, which itself was on top of a book on the ‘Elemental Classification of Dragons’.

Science books, the dragon hoarded science books. If only he could tell Susan, she’d have the thing dead in a day.

He continued creeping around the pillar, then came to an abrupt stop when he saw Robert coming around the other end.

Their eyes widened in realization.

“Hello,” A deep feminine voice echoed from above them.

Cole’s eyes went up. That was how he spotted the cage suspended from the center of the dome. The dome was so high that he could barely see the thing, but a flash of light reflecting off the side helped him notice it.

And the dragon.

He finally laid eyes on the creature and promptly leapt backwards in a panic. It was a strange combination of snake and weasel, with bat wings curled up incongruously above its shoulders. Only the size of a passenger airplane.

It hung from the pillar above them like a spider looking down at the prey in its web, grinning at Cole with a mouthful of teeth longer than his forearm. Then the beach ball sized eyes turned to the side to stare at Robert and the smile became a frown.

“Well you’re not supposed to be here,” It said.

“Do not taunt me, beast,” Robert snapped back viciously, stepping forward, “I know your true form now, and before this night is out I will drink you dry and erase all memory of my humiliation from the world!”

Cole took a step back as he spoke, trying to keep the very ambitious vampire between him and the giant monster. As the vampire took a breath to continue, he began to glance around. A plan slowly started to come together as to how he might reach the cage above him.

In front of him the vampire seemed to take on a dark aura. Energy coalesced around his hands and formed into heavy black claws that seemed to warp the light around them.

As Cole stepped further away gathering his feet under himself to run the other way, the dragon began repositioning itself. It crouched lower and bared its teeth, getting ready to leap.

Then, as the energy finished settling around him; the vampire began to speak again, screaming out his next words.

“Your servants and slaves will join you in death as they rue the day-”

Cole’s sword impacted the back of Robert’s head with a vengeance.

The vampire stood still for a moment as Cole whipped the sword back and took up a fighting stance.

Then Robert slowly tilted forward before flopping to the ground with a thud.

The room was perfectly still afterward, not a sound breaking the moment. Cole’s eyes rose to meet the dragon’s. It slowly blinked as both of its enormous eyebrows raised in surprise.

“CONGRADU-”

“SHUT UP!” Cole roared over the exultant unicorn, chest heaving as he came down from the rush of adrenaline that had pushed him forward. He had practically moved on instinct when the vampire threatened Mattie. Now he was down an ally and the only reason he wasn’t ash on the floor was because the dragon seemed too bemused to react.

“AHAHAHA,” The dragon bellowed, “Oh, this is going better than I thought.”

It dropped down to the ground with a world shaking thud, and the long tail reached down to wrap around the prone Robert. The appendage swung around slowly, then sped up and with a thunderous crack of air the vampire was thrown back across the hall like a bullet.

Cole’s eyes could barely track the flying form as Robert shot back out the front archway and into the distance. And then it was just him and the dragon again.

“Right,” The dragon finally stopped laughing, “Now where were we?”

It looked down on him, and Cole swallowed as he looked at the mouth more than large enough to swallow him whole.

It frowned.

“Hmm,” The dragon hummed to itself, eyes scrunching up in thought, “Could you give me a sec?”

The long neck twisted around so that the dragon could stare back at its body. It took a moment for Cole to understand what was happening, but then he spotted some odd black squiggles on the dragon’s forearm.

They were words, he realized. Someone had written something in sharpie on the scales.

“Hmm, yes,” The dragon muttered before turning back to him.

“BEHOLD,” It’s voice boomed across the cavernous building as it reared up on its hind legs, “I AM QUE- wait.”

It checked its arm again, “Que-zo-co- how do you even pronounce that?”

It fell silent for a moment.

“Do you mean Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent from Aztec myth?” Cole spoke up slowly.

The dragon’s massive head came up slowly to glare at him, then leaned down. Its lips dragged open over razor-sharp fangs.

Cole swallowed and stepped back. What kind of attack would it-

“Nerd,” It spat out.

“Hey, your ‘dragon’s hoard’ is made of textbooks!” Cole yelled, but the dragon just chuckled to itself at his reaction.

Cole wanted to laugh, or maybe scream, at the insanity of the situation. The deadly dragon he was sent to fight seemed to have no idea at all what it was doing.

But, it was a dragon. The part of him that wanted to laugh was drowned out by all the other parts that were gibbering in fear. Every time it moved he felt his stomach drop.

As he watched, the dragon began examining its arm again. It slowly stumbled over the name a few more times, before shaking its head in frustration.

“Well, he said I should try using it,” The dragon muttered, before finally rearing up again, “BEHOLD, I AM RUIN.”

Cole turned and ran. Behind him the dragon cursed, but he ignored it as he focused on one of the pillars. It rushed towards him as he crossed the distance in seconds thanks to his increased stats.

Then, leaping upwards, he positioned his feet toward the pillar and tried running up it. Somehow, his legs seemed to know what to do as they caught the stone of the pillar and kicked backwards.

It still took his brain a moment to realize he was actually doing it. His feet pushed off the pillar over and over and he saw the ceiling start to draw closer.

For the first time he managed to get a real look at the cage he was aiming for. It was a silver birdcage, ornately designed and hanging from a golden chain. Within stood a woman in a white gown, her height and hair making it obvious she was Mattie.

He finally drew level to it, and with a mighty kick from both legs he leapt away from the pillar and towards the cage.

He could see Mattie fully now. She was staring at him with a wide smile, one arm reaching through the bars of the cage and out towards him. He smiled as well, and then he saw her eyes flicker down and something caught him around the ankle.

He was torn from the air with a scream. The dragon landed with a heavy thud back on the ground from where it had leapt, Cole held upside down from the ankle by her tail.

“That was rude,” Her voice roared over him despite her quiet tone as she held him almost directly in front of her face.

His sword lashed out in response, but was deflected off the scales of her face with a shriek of steel.

“WOULD YOU CUT THAT OUT? I HAVE A SPEECH TO GIVE, DAMMIT!” The dragon roared in response, and Cole had to desperately cover his ears.

“GIVE IT TO SOMEONE WHO CARES!” Cole shouted back, putting his sword between them.

The dragon’s face twisted into a sneer, “FINE!”

Then Cole found himself flying backwards towards the front of the building. He fell in a messy tumble, only barely straightening out his fall so that he landed on his feet. Even so, with the incredible speed he had been thrown at, he ended up skidding backwards another hundred feet until he finally came to a stop.

He breathed out a quick sigh, thankful for the increased stats that made the maneuver survivable.

A gray mass appeared in front of him forcing him to duck under it. As the object slammed into a pillar behind him with a thunderous boom, Cole realized that it was one of the massive bricks that made up the humongous structure. He turned back to see the dragon using its claws to pry up another mammoth piece of masonry out of the floor.

“SO YOU DODGED THAT, HUH?” The dragon roared, its tail circling around behind it just like it had earlier when it threw Robert out the door.

Cole knew what was going to happen, but he didn’t even get the time to move before the boulder was flying at him.

With no chance to dodge Cole instead swung the sword, desperately hoping to blunt the force of the impact. His eyes began to close in anticipation, only to open again when he felt something tug at his chest.

A beam of light erupted from his blade, cutting the car sized projectile in half. The two halves of the boulder struck the ground on either side of him harmlessly as he looked on with wide eyes.

“Hi!” Rainbow shouted, eliciting another shriek in response, “I made your mana better!”

“YOU CAN DO THAT?” Cole screamed back.

“Now you can use the magic sword’s super ability!”

“THE WHAT!”

Cole had to dodge another boulder that crashed down on his position. He barely noticed, locking eyes with the unicorn.

“IT CAN WHAT?”

“To use the sword’s super ability, just give your sword mana! Can you feel your mana?” The unicorn asked with its guileless eyes, unblinking as another boulder passed through its body to crash against a pillar.

Cole turned away, trying to focus back on the sword even as stones crashed and thundered around him. It felt like there was something running from him into the sword, some sort of heat that seemed to come from his heart.

He tried to make the flow increase, and the blade began to hum in his hands.

His feet planted on the ground, and he turned to face the next boulder thrown at him by the dragon.

And with a swing of his sword, it was reduced to pebbles.

He shot a triumphant look at the dragon, chest heaving as he exalted in the heady rush of doing magic for the first time.

The dragon simply frowned, dropped the chunk of stones it was currently holding, and crouched low to the floor. Then it was halfway across the room, shooting towards him like a rocket.

Cole screamed and jumped as hard as he could, then screamed even louder as his desperate leap shot him almost a hundred feet in the air. The air hummed around the monster as it passed below him.

“Show me my stats!” He snapped to the Unicorn hovering by his side.

Wide eyes examined the pinkish screen, then got even wider. His stats were in the hundreds.

Physical Powers! Magical Excellence!

Strength- 5 (+126) Mana- 1 (+63)

Agility- 3 (+197) Sensitivity- (+9)

Constitution-6 (+131) Knowledge- 0

“Wow! Look at how many Power Points you have now!” cheered the unicorn. “I’ve been using them to help make you faster and stronger!”

Cole ignored it, dismissing the screen and turning his attention back to his fall.

His feet touched the ground and the next instant he was running as fast as he could, not even looking back to see what had happened to the dragon. An indignant roar told him more than enough.

Even as his strengthened legs carried him dozens of feet in a single step, he felt a rush of fear as the cacophonous footfalls of the dragon began to echo following behind him.

His legs threatened to shake themselves apart underneath him as the adrenaline began to eat away at his coordination. As he huffed out another shaky breath, an idea wormed its way into the back of his mind.

He could just run. With such incredible stats he could probably outrun the dragon. Leave, train, and come back to fight another day. Whatever god sent him here probably didn’t want him to just kill himself like an idiot. They wouldn’t mind, right?

He squashed the idea. He didn’t care about some supernatural quest, what mattered was Mattie. So what if it killed him? Cole was going to save her.

A shriek echoed from up ahead of him, one his mind quickly realized must have come from Mattie.

He had to get to her- No, he had to kill this damn dragon first.

His feet caught the floor, bringing him to a skidding halt even as he turned. His mind pushing the connection between himself and the sword until the blade screamed with unreleased power.

His eyes locked on to the beast bounding towards him. Its eyes began to light up as it saw him turn, and its jaws opened wide as its head swung down on top of him.

Cole swung the sword.

The blade disintegrated into a thousand pieces as a beam of pure energy exploded forth. It caught the dragon in the middle of the neck and passed through it to scorch a line across the far wall.

For a hair raising moment, the dragon continued to fly towards Cole. Then the head and neck flopped over him to crash down somewhere behind. The headless body thundered to the ground, rolling to a stop barely ten feet away from him.

His lungs heaved air in and out as he stared at the crumbled body for a moment.

“I… did it?” He gasped.

“YOU DID IT!” A voice screamed behind him and two arms wrapped around him in a crushing hug.

“Youdidityoudidityoudidit!” Mattie screamed in celebration, jumping up and down even in excitement.

“Mattie, you're alright!” Cole shouted.

“Of course I am!” She said, eyes sparkling as she stared down into his eyes, “The cage unlocked as soon as you became a true hero!”

“A hero?”

“Yes!” She screamed, “Now we can start dating!”

Cole blinked, “We weren’t dating before?” He blurted out.

“Oh, well,” Mattie looked away, scratching the back of her neck, “It's a long story.”

Cole’s eyes returned to the headless body behind them.

“I guess it is.”

He decided to leave that for later and enjoy the feeling of her arms around him and the joy of winning a fight he hadn’t believed he would even survive. It was a heady feeling, made better by the fact that he didn’t even have the nightmare unicorn staring him in the face right now.

Then he frowned

“Huh, that’s weird.”

“What’s wrong?” Mattie asked quickly.

“Usually Rainbow would be congratulating me for defeating my enemies by now,” Cole said, looking around until he found the unicorn floating behind him.

“What do you mean?” It asked, tilting its head in confusion, “You didn’t beat anyone.”

Reality did a barrel roll.

“Hmm,” He stared at the unicorn for a long moment, “What.”

His head turned toward the dragon’s corpse, only for it to dissolve in front of his eyes. Around both of them, the grand building began to fade. Grass appeared beneath his feet, and trees appeared off in the distance.

Cole gaped around at the clearing that had replaced the stone and lava hellscape. Something boomed behind him, making the pair jump.

A quick turn revealed the dragon clapping its paws together, an enormous smile covering its face as it lounged in the middle of the clearing. Incongruously, Anne stood in front of it, wearing a familiar white dress. Next to her was a Junior girl in a bathrobe that Cole vaguely recognized as one of Mattie’s friends.

“So what did you think?” She shouted, grinning.

“Dragon!” Cole shrieked, only to be cut off by a hand tugging at his shoulder. He turned to look at Mattie only to see the single most awkward expression he had ever seen.

“What?” He asked.

“Uhhh,” She stammered eloquently, eyes whipping back and forth, “So, um, y’know that long story, right? Well, thing is, there’s a curse I needed to remove, and so I… we… err…”

“We kidnapped you and faked the whole isekai!” The dragon shouted.

“Oh, shut up Susan!” Mattie shouted back, “You’re not helping!”

Cole’s head turned back glacially.

“S-Susan?” He sputtered out.

“Yep! What did you think of my performance?”

“Uhh,” Animal instinct warred with human familiarity until a single thought bubbled to the forefront of his mind.

“Your hoard sucks!” He finally blurted out.

Ruth and Anne both burst into laughter as Mattie slapped a hand over her face. Susan was left sputtering with outrage.

“What?” She blustered, “What’s wrong with science books?”

Cole had to join the others in laughing, the incongruity of a dragon spouting the most classically ‘Susan’ line ever finally getting to him.

“Come on,” She continued, even more flustered, “Like you would have done any better, you would have just hoarded manga!”

It didn’t help. They only laughed harder.

An hour later, the group had relocated to a 24 hour diner on the outskirts of town, having flown back in, of all the things, a magic coffin. They sat crowded into one of the red leather booths, a smattering of coffees and milkshakes covering the table.

Cole found himself seated next to the window alongside Mattie. Anne, Ruth, and Susan, now all human and properly clothed, were seated across from them. In the background the chatter of the television played over the empty restaurant.

The situation had been well explained by this point, and most of Cole’s questions had been answered. He now sat staring at his reflection in the dark window, mulling things over while the amateur kidnappers chatted.

He really wasn’t sure what to make of the whole situation. His isekai experience had been terrifying and a complete mess, and he was still reeling from learning that the whole thing was all a lie. But he couldn’t help the joy he felt at the fact that Mattie genuinely liked him enough to have done it in the first place.

In the end, the only thing he got out of the whole thing was a really weird story and a girlfriend. Cole stopped when he had that thought, realizing he was probably being stupid.

A look to the side showed the girl in question. She was looking down at the table with a heavy blush, a hand idly twirling a lock of hair as she waited for his reaction.

A nudge got her attention.

“So, are we still on for anime Friday?” He asked.

“R-really?” She asked, biting her lip in anticipation.

“Yeah, of course,” He said with a shrug, then watched her go from awkward to happy in an instant.

“Absolutely,” She said with a wide smile, and Cole found himself smiling back.

“Okay,” Susan broke in, “Before you two get any more distracted, let's get the Grader deactivated.”

“But,” Cole began, only to be interrupted.

“No, you can’t keep it,” She said, “Artificial strength enhancement is super dangerous long term.”

Anne and Ruth turned towards Mattie simultaneously.

”Wasn’t this thing meant for kids?” Ruth asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes- Well no, but,” Mattie threw her hands in the air, “Didn't I already tell you about this?”

“When?”

“When we were getting Cole!”

Ruth leaned forward, both eyebrows now raised, “Was this that thing you were talking about when we were dragging Mr Hero here out his window in that coffin of yours.”

“Wait, what?” Cole broke in.

“It was nothing!” Mattie said in a high pitched voice, not looking at him and speaking quickly, “ Anyways, to recap, the Grader is supposed to encourage kids to exercise and learn more about magic; the enhancement thing is just for emergencies. I actually had to jailbreak it to get it in permanent emergency mode like that.”

“And forgot to delete ‘Rainbow,’ apparently,” Susan said with a wide, shark-like smile that Ruth and Anne quickly mirrored.

“Oh, yes, tell us more about this ‘Rainbow’,” Ruth said, leaning in.

Cole saw from the corner of his eye as Mattie’s eyes widened in horror.

“It was nothing,” He said, trying to avoid the three sets of eyes boring into him with barely disguised glee.

“Are you sure?” Susan had settled her chin on her hands as she stared him down, “Even for say… Two weeks of Math homework?”

“Very sure!” Cole said before he had time to talk himself out of it.

The wide eyed smile from Mattie made it very hard to regret, though.

”No…” Anne spoke up, and Cole breathed a sigh of relief. “We won't convince him tonight, we’ll need to wait a few weeks.”

And now Cole was right back to being worried.

“Lets get that Grader out already!” Mattie burst out, and Cole nodded vigorously in agreement.

They turned to face each other, both trying and failing to ignore the three girls watching them.

“Right, so, show me where you took it in?” Mattie asked, and Cole held out his hand.

Holding both hands out over it, she muttered a few words in a language Cole didn’t recognize and the eye searing form of Rainbow appeared in front of Cole.

“Hi,” It said, “Is it time to go now?”

“Yes!” Cole shouted, then winced,

“Okay then, bye bye now!” The unicorn shouted, waving at him with a hoof. A second later it faded away, leaving Cole staring at Mattie again.

Then his strength began to bleed away. It was a surreal feeling, one moment he had the instinctual knowledge that he could put his hand through the wall with minimal effort. The next, that instinct was replaced with the quiet understanding of exactly how much that would hurt.

A weight appeared in his hand, and then he felt Mattie’s hands brush against his as she reached down to pick up the silver sphere that had appeared. She gave it a quick look before slipping it into a pocket.

Cole couldn't help the look of longing he sent after it, feeling weak after the loss of all that power.

Mattie must have noticed, because she smiled and leaned in.

“Don't worry,” She whispered, “It's just basic magic enhancement, I can teach you to do it yourself.”

They sat there a moment, faces close and just looking at each other before a light cough caught their attention.

“Any last questions before we finish things?” Anne asked as she absentmindedly reached for her coffee.

“Yeah,” Cole said, turning to face her, “Just one.”

The coffee paused halfway to her mouth, “Yeah?”

“How the hell is Susan a dragon?”

All eyes quickly turned to Susan, who rolled her eyes.

“I got isekai’d, duh” She said with a dismissive shrug, and Cole’s jaw dropped.

“Really?” He asked quickly.

Susan shot him a look, “Yes, really.”

“Like, an actual isekai, not a kidnapping?”

Susan rolled her eyes at that.

“Yes, a real isekai, though it was actually a kidnapping.”

Cole’s mouth paused halfway open when he heard that, but any response he might have made was cut off when Ruth spoke up from across the booth.

“Uh, guys?” She asked, pointing a finger towards one of the old blocky TVs hung in the corner of the room, “Are you seeing this too?”

Cole turned to see the TV showing what he was pretty sure was a Pokémon. It looked like an alligator snapping turtle, but with a flat brass colored shell and a thick club on the end of its tail like a dinosaur.

It was also huge, crushing trees beneath its feet as it waddled through a forest. The image came from a helicopter, which seemed to be hovering well away from the beast with the camera zoomed very far in to capture the image.

“MONSTER ATTACKS YOSEMITE!” Scrolled over the bottom of the screen, and Cole felt his jaw drop open.

Then a dot appeared, shooting towards the camera which began to shake. There was a hair raising moment as the dot drew closer, but then it began to resolve itself into a figure.

It was a young girl in a red and blue dress. She quickly drew closer to the helicopter, then once she was close grabbed onto the side. There was a flash of light that left the camera blinded, and when the picture became clear again it had changed.

Instead of the park, the helicopter now hovered above a department store parking lot filled with people. They all wore outdoor clothing and backpacks, some looking shocked and others relieved.

The girl watched the crowd for a moment, then nodded to herself. Shooting the camera a smile, she floated away from the helicopter before vanishing into thin air.

The sound of Susan’s head thunking against the table broke the silence that had fallen over the group.

“Was that a magical girl?” Cole blurted out, looking back to the others.

Susan let out a sound between a scream and a groan, still face planted into the table.

“What’s wrong?” Anne asked, and Susan raised her head to look at her.

“We have to go.”

“Now?”

“Yep, I have an idiot little sister to go save.”

That got her looks from the entire rest of the group, except for Anne who stiffened in her seat. Her hands tightening around her mug in a death grip.

Cole frowned at that, shooting a confused look at Mattie. She quickly shook her head and mouthed, ‘later’.

“Don't worry,” Susan said quickly, “There’s a place nearby that should be safe to stay while I’m gone.”

“Really?”

Susan smiled, “Oh yes, my grandparents.”