Shinrabansho: Myriad Souls

I stared at Pon-chan for a long moment, my breathing steadying as the weight of everything pressed in around us. His small body was still and alert in a way that went beyond animal instinct.

“Are you by any chance actually Akuchi?” I asked, my lips quirking despite the gravity of our situation.

Pon-chan nodded sharply. The fierceness in his eyes did not belong to a ferret.

Rui stared at the ferret perched on my shoulder, her gaze lingering for a beat before she scoffed.

“I had no idea that was you. He really did a number on you, didn’t he?” She smirked.

Ume giggled. “It suits you.”

Annoyance flickered in Akuchi’s eyes, his ears flattening for an instant.

“He locked me into this simple being. My thoughts were fragmented. All I could do was play my part in this dream.” He shifted his weight against my shoulder. “Even though being cooped up in my cage most of the time, I enjoyed it. I got to see something really special. Even though I was extremely jealous, I saw the love grow between you and Aoi.” His gaze held steady. “I finally understand that love isn’t seized, it isn’t taken. It grows from the heart over time. I can’t blame you for thinking so little of me, despite my unfailing loyalty.”

My vision blurred as moisture gathered at the corners of my eyes.

“I don’t think little of you,” I said with a small smile, tears blurring my vision.

“You don’t?” Akuchi asked, surprised.

“I think that you finally got through to me ever since that time when you asked me to tell you all about Reiko-chan. That was a moment when you were most sincere with me. You didn’t pretend to be something greater than you… you were even kind of vulnerable… in a good way. You didn’t strut, no crazy antics. I know that you genuinely care under all that,” I said gently.

Akuchi nodded slowly. His eyes shimmered, wet and bright, and he drew a shallow breath through his moist nose.

“I do, although I can’t change my nature so easily. I’m a trickster, mischievous by trade and instinct. While I lied and went with the flow… and I mean that literally… if you catch my drift… you know how we met,” Akuchi said with thin humor in his voice, grinning.

The memory hit me instantly, too vividly. That cramped alleyway with a wall in it that he was pretending to be. I had no idea that it was him… and the moment I exposed him in the most humiliating way imaginable. As a Noh Face, my pee stream had been like a yellow fire hose stream saturating every centimeter of him.

Heat rushed to my face. I looked away, mortified all over again.

“…I lied about caring about you after that, but I did what my customs demanded. I played games, pretending to run out of energy catering to Rui’s annoying demands. But when I watched you fight Noh Face, I changed my mind about how I felt about you and returned to help. That was when I became interested in you. Your chaos was impressive, considering that you aren’t a tanuki.” He laughed.

“My chaos? You mean the side effect of being a noh face. I couldn’t help any of that,” I muttered.

“I believe much of it sprang from you. I watched you after that and developed feelings. Around the time Natalia gave you your sentai suit, I had fallen in love.” He paused, then shook himself. “Never mind. There’s something more important to discuss.”

Everyone turned toward him. Even Rui smiled.

“I have a great deal of consciousness power that you all gathered.”

“What?” Rui blinked. “What are you talking about? Come to think of it, you’re still glowing like some kind of weird light-up ferret lamp, but—”

“Remember when you wanted to send that energy to Natalia and Kagami-no-Kami?” Akuchi chuckled.

“Yeah. What about it? Our silly dance failed. They weren’t like Susumu. It’s not like we could shake our hips and expect some kind of miraculous powerup.” Rui frowned. “It’s hard to believe it worked at all.”

“The way you danced inspired me.” I shrugged and smiled. “Because you danced and you matter to me, you activated my noh face powers during that fight.” “Carmelldansen will always encourage me.”

Rui blushed and smiled. “In that case, I guess I can’t help it. I’ll dance for you… any time, Susu.”

“I’m glad that you cherish those days so much.” Reiko brushed her face against mine and pressed her lips to mine. “They mean a lot to me too.”

We shared a quick kiss.

“Tch… stealing my thunder. You were always like that, Reiko.” Rui crossed her arms, pouting. “Even though you piss me off, I love you.”

DOKI-DOKI

“Me too, you stubborn little shit.” Reiko giggled.

“Don’t call me little!” Rui gnashed her teeth.

“Ahem… That energy…” Akuchi interrupted. “It didn’t go to waste. It all landed on me and awakened my mind. Not just my ability to think or talk, but something that can help us. I think we could do something fun with it.”

Everyone looked at him on my shoulder.

“Tell me, Susumu… Reiko… everyone… What would you like to do with this power that you’ve all gathered?” Akuchi pressed. “Hurry up. I don’t know how much longer I’ll keep glowing.”

The silence that followed was shared. I felt it in the way our stances shifted and our eyes met without a word.

We all giggled.

“When you mentioned going with the flow, and when Kagami-no-Kami told you that you need only accept the world around you, that’s what we should do with it, Akuchi. Go with the flow.” Reiko smiled.

“You want Sumire to pee on me again, right here?” Akuchi said. He stiffened, then flushed despite being a fuzzy, glowing ferret. “I don’t think I’m ready to be marked again.”

“Pervert,” Rui mocked him, her lips twisting.

My face burned. I drew in on myself and looked away.

Reiko’s lips twisted. “No. You’re a magical girl’s mascot right now. That glow is like magic. You know what the world demands of you, don’t you?”

Ume gasped, her eyes widening. “You’re seriously going to do that…?”

Akuchi laughed, unrestrained.

“I see! I will go with the flow indeed! It is what this world demands of me.” He moonwalked on my shoulder, then sprang into a small flip and landed.

“Grandstanding baka,” Rui said, crossing her arms.

His glow intensified despite Rui’s glower. The air vibrated, warm against my skin, and two flip phones appeared with red hearts inset in their lids, hovering perfectly still between Reiko and me and humming with power.

“Do you accept this temporary contract with your fabulous mascot?”

I smirked and placed my fingertips on the phone in front of me. Reiko did the same, her eyes flashing.

“I do,” we said together.

Light flashed as the phones solidified in front of us. When Reiko and I reached for them, it spilled outward, warm and soft at first, like morning sun through gauze, before surging and wrapping around us.

The ground fell away.

I felt weightless, suspended in white light threaded with slow-moving ribbons that wrapped around our bodies. They brushed my wrists and ankles, slid along the smooth backs of my calves, traced the curve where my thighs met my hips, then skimmed over my shoulders and down my arms, guiding me into motion. My yukata fractured into drifting dream particles, peeling away in soft bursts of light until my skin was bare to the glow for a single, breathless instant. Cool air washed over my back and stomach, raising a shiver as it traced the line of my waist. My chest lifted as I breathed, my breasts rising unhidden, my nipples firming in the open light before the glow surged closer again.

My feet turned and my arms lifted, not by force but by consciousness power. My hips followed with a gentle swaying, my spine arching as my shoulders rolled back and my stomach tightened. My chest rose into the light, my breasts lifted and bare, my skin warm and tingling where the glow traced my ribs and my waist. My muscles stretched along my hips and shoulders as my weight settled one step at a time beneath me, each shift carrying my body forward into the next motion while the light steered my arms and legs.

Across from me, Reiko spun in the opposite direction, her body turning through black light that thickened behind her. Where my glow flowed, hers snapped sharply, edged with confidence. We turned in counterpoint without looking at each other. Black motes slid from her shoulders and down her arms, peeling from her waist and thighs, her clothes shedding piece by piece until her body stood bare in shadow and glow. The light traced her collarbones, skimming along the curve of her breasts, ran down her stomach and hips as she rotated, her muscles tightening and releasing with each turn. Her legs crossed and uncrossed through her spinning, her calves flexing, her toes pointed, her form clear for a breath before the darkness closed back around her.

The light condensed around my hands first. White gloves sweeping up from my fingertips to my forearms, clinging to my skin before flashing into place, soft silver tracing the edges as my wrists turned. A pulse followed at my chest. Pearly white fabric slid in over my breasts and ribs, closing around my chest and under my arms, fitted close enough to hold me without pinching, my breathing lifting the material with each breath. The contact was smooth and warm, my skin tingling where the fabric settled and locked in place.

A skirt spread from my waist in clean panels, white with faint lavender tones that shifted as my hips turned. The hem brushed my thighs as it flared, then dropped back into place as my feet set. Boots followed, white and knee-high, forming from my ankles upward, firm along my soles and calves until they locked in with a soft flash.

A ribbon tied my hair back, lifting it clear from my neck as it brushed my skin, and another formed at my chest in a quiet burst of pale pink light, small and neat as it settled between my breasts. The knot cinched gently, the fabric resting against my skin with a soft warmth that spread through my chest and down my spine. My breath eased as it finished tying. My body felt complete. Ready for action.

Black light gathered around Reiko.

It wrapped around her legs first, climbing from her ankles to her calves and over her thighs, tightening as sleek boots took shape. The glow hugged her legs, pressing close to muscle and curving before sealing, violet edging catching where the light pulled snugly. Her skirt snapped into place at her hips in a flared arc of deep black with bold crimson accents, the hem lifting to brush her thighs as she turned, then settling back against her legs. The bodice followed, drawing in over her chest and ribs, closing around her breasts, closing around them and waist, pressing in firmly until her spine straightened and her shoulders rolled back.

Her gloves formed with a flash, black cloth sliding over her palms and fingers, climbing her wrists and forearms before fading to silver at the edges. She flexed her fingers once, feeling the fit along her knuckles. A short red ribbon snapped into place at her chest, tight against the fabric, sitting where her heartbeat pressed beneath it. It suited her.

We turned at the same time.

The light surged between us, crossing, spiraling, then pulling back as if unveiling us to the world. We landed together, our feet striking the ground in perfect sync, our skirts settling, our hair lifting briefly in the fading glow.

The transformation light burst outward one final time, white and black intertwining, before collapsing into a shower of sparkling motes that vanished into the air.

Rui and Ume stared at us.

For half a second, neither of them moved. Then Ume laughed, loud and unrestrained, grabbed Rui’s hands, and pulled her into motion. They broke into Caramelldansen without a shred of shame, their hips swaying wide and loose as their hands opened and closed in time, their breasts and shoulders bouncing as they laughed. Their hips and arms swept through the remaining light, scattering it in visible ripples that washed back over us, warming my skin as it sank in.

So cute!

The glow around my body flared brighter as they danced. I felt it move through my arms and legs, spreading with each breath, warm and steady as it settled into me.

Reiko grinned beside me, black and red against my white and lavender, her shoulder pressed to mine, her hand finding mine as we faced forward together.

“It’s just like the movie we watched together on our date,” I said with a soft smile. “I always thought we were watching our story told in a different way.” The words came out softer than I expected. The glow from my transformation still clung to my skin, spreading across my shoulders and down my arms, lingering at my waist and my thighs before it slowly thinned and faded.

“Maybe that’s why you couldn’t stop crying.” Reiko touched my cheek with her fingertips. “But you didn’t remember anything about you and me outside the dream.”

“That’s true. When I said that, I was speaking as Sumire Shinohara. That ribbon-wearing, idol-crazy girl.” I drew a breath. “Before I regained my memories, I kept thinking about how much they were like Aoi and me, only things reversed. We started in love, then fell out of it, and found our way back when you found the courage to face me again.” I gripped my skirt, my fingers tightening into the fabric to steady myself. “That’s what I meant.”

Reiko didn’t answer right away. She stepped closer instead, close enough that the warmth of her body pressed along my arm.

“The difference,” she said quietly, “is that I always loved you. Even during those hellish three weeks, my wife.” She wrapped her arms around me and kissed me, slow and gentle.

DOKI-DOKI… BADUMP

I leaned into her without thinking, needing more than I knew I could have right then, my hands settling against her back, my breathing easing as everything narrowed to the warmth of her body and the steady point of contact between us.

We broke the kiss, still holding hands.

“For good luck.”

Above us, the sky groaned.

The darkness that had swollen across the dream twisted inward on itself. Noh-Baku’s vast form convulsed, the storm of shadow and eyes drawing closer as the space around him collapsed. Distance peeled away beneath his body violently, the sky and cloud tearing apart as he descended, compressing his massive form smaller, the clouds spiraling inward and ripping apart as he dropped.

The pressure of his presence hit us, my knees buckling under it. The air thickened, vibrating against my skin as an immense presence descended onto the suddenly silent school grounds.

Then the ground split.

Black smoke and shattered light poured downward, slamming into the school grounds in a violent surge that tore up turf and soil, sending clods of earth and debris skittering away. Darkness knotted around his intact form, writhing with too many eyes and too much motion, his tails thrashing and clawing at the air as the dream struggled to contain him.

The air trembled.

Noh-Baku stood before us, his shape unstable, fur rising from his form rippling like smoke, his tusks fractured with crawling black veins of dark power. His many eyes focused on us at once, widening as the last motes of transformation light faded.

“…Remarkable,” he said slowly. “A dual manifestation of consciousness power. White and black. Order and defiance. Love… crystallized into form,” his voice carried awe and something brittle beneath it. “What does this mean, I wonder?”

His gaze slid to Reiko.

“Does this mean,” Noh-Baku asked quietly, “that you wish to die?”

Reiko did not hesitate, nodding once.

“I don’t want to,” she said. “But I accept that I’m not alive anymore.”

She tightened her grip on my hand.

“I will do everything to change you back to who you were. You saved me earlier, and I want to save you too.”

Her voice didn’t waver.

“Your gifts gave me a chance to be happier than I ever thought I could be.”

She bowed her head slightly.

“I thank you with my whole heart, Baku-san.”

I felt her grip tighten around my hand and let go as I stepped forward and spoke too.

“Thank you for giving me back my wife, Baku-san. If it wasn’t for you, I’d never have had these precious moments with Reiko. I’m grateful to you. Please go back to how you were so that this dream doesn’t have to end yet.” I begged.

The dream shuddered.

“What makes you think that it will end?” Baku asked.

“You can’t keep going like this. It’s all disappearing. Please give that power back to me.” I extended my hand. “Let’s fix the dream.”

“There is no need for me to give up this power,” Noh-Baku said, his voice hardening.

“You already have everything you wanted, Sumire.”

He spread one hand slightly.

“I offer you a better deal. I will keep this darkness you cast aside and use it to become what I must.”

His many eyes fixed on us.

“You may return to the dream. I will restore everything as it was. You will not have to return to your dreary real lives.”

His gaze settled on Reiko.

“This world is far kinder. More fulfilling.”

A pause.

“You have the chance to save her life.”

“You’re corrupted,” I said. My voice firm. “If you stay like that, the dream will always be rotten.”

“I WILL FIX IT. IT WILL BE AS IT WAS!”

“Only the old Baku-san could give us the dream that you want for us.”

His shattered tusks flared with light. “I’m better than he ever was. I possess the power of gods, even outside the dream world now. My grip on my dream is stronger than ever.”

“Prove it then,” I said. “Rebuild the dream.”

Rui and Ume kept dancing behind us, breathless now, their eyes wide, their feet still moving out of momentum.

Noh-Baku reached out…

…

And the world bent.

Buildings blurred. Trees doubled, smeared, then snapped into tortured angles. For one breath, the dream almost stabilized, colors sharpening, things working more like they should—

Then the effort collapsed.

The sky tore like fabric. The school grounds twisted beneath us, the field warping, then fractured. Noh-Baku staggered, clutching at the air, his form distorting violently.

His many eyes darted around, confused.

“Wh—what is wrong—?”

“Don’t you get it?” Reiko said, her voice cutting cleanly through the chaos. “Sumire is right. What you’ve become can’t create beautiful dreams anymore.”

“You’re only capable of creating nightmares now.”

Something broke in him.

“So be it,” Noh-Baku growled. Darkness surged outward in a shockwave that hurled us back. “I will embrace all that I am.”

He straightened and inflated slightly.

“I am the Lord of Nightmares.”

The power pouring off him grew especially vile, thick and crushing, scraping against my skin, sending a chill up my spine.

Reiko squeezed my hand once.

I nodded to her.

“All that’s left is to fight then,” I said and lifted my free hand, pointing into the sky. “Follow us, Baku-san.”

Our feet left the ground.

We rose together. The air resisted for an instant, then gave way. Wind tore past my ears, tugging at my long hair, making my skirt flutter and flap as my body adjusted, my shoulders setting into position without conscious thought. My breathing steadied, each breath matching the tension held through my core.

Behind us, the air split.

Noh-Baku surged after us, his bulk tearing free of the ground as the dream buckled under his pursuit.

We hovered for half a heartbeat together above him, choosing where to stand our ground midair.

Then we shot forward as one at him.

Noh-Baku roared as he surged up at us, his form swelling beyond restraint, the sound splitting the sky. He swung an arm the size of a building through the space we had occupied a moment earlier. The blow didn’t just move air. It warped it. The dream bent inward around his fist, space collapsing into a crushing wave.

“Go left!” Reiko snapped.

I released her hand and twisted midair, tucking tight and rolling under the arc of his vast strike. My skirt snapped sharply as I inverted, my boots slicing through the warped air. I extended at the last instant and drove my heel into his massive wrist.

The impact landed with a concussive force.

CRACK

The shock ran straight up my leg and stopped at my hip. My heel struck the bone beneath his fur, my balance holding.

Reiko cut in from below my right, already inside his reach.

Black light flared around her knee as she slammed it into Noh-Baku’s elbow joint, striking the hinge cleanly. She rotated with the recoil and brought her heel down into his shoulder in a descending blow that twisted his upper body out of alignment.

Noh-Baku bellowed. Darkness burst outward in jagged spikes, dreammatter hardening into lethal shards that tore through the air in every direction.

I kept moving as the spikes tore past. I tucked, rolled, and slipped through the gaps, my body answering before panic could.

We dove. I came in high, my fists thrusting.

Two punches hit his chest in quick succession. One. Then the other. White and black light detonated at each point of contact. My knuckles drove into his fur and shadow, meeting dense resistance that shuddered under the blows.

Reiko cut in beneath me. She spun through his centerline and drove a kick into his midsection, then followed with an elbow into his flank, a backfist into his massive jaw, and a knee driven hard into the space beneath his ribs.

Each strike landed where it needed to, even as his body tried to lose shape around the impact.

Noh-Baku snarled and slammed both hands together.

The shockwave hit like a freight train.

Pain tore through my ribs as I was hurled backward, the world spinning. Air screamed past my ears. I twisted mid-flight and caught myself just enough to keep from slamming fully into a floating slab of broken ground. Dust scattered in dream motes.

Stone fractured under my boots.

CRACK

RUMBLE

Blood filled my mouth.

I pushed off at once and went back in.

Reiko was already there, hovering above the shattered ground she had just torn through. Blood marked the corner of her mouth. Her eyes were clear and sharp.

She fought with absolute command, the woman I knew and loved written into her every motion.

“Again,” she said.

We moved together.

White and black crossed in tight arcs, threading through his strikes. I slipped under a claw that carved open the sky and drove my palm up into his jaw, releasing light at the moment of impact.

Reiko followed from above. Her axe kick landed where his skull met his neck. The impact rang like metal on stone.

Noh-Baku shrieked. Black ichor sprayed across the sky, staining the clouds as they recoiled.

He lashed out blindly.

One massive hand closed around Reiko midair.

Something snapped inside me at the sight.

My vision burned.

“Don’t you dare hurt my WIFE!” I yelled.

I launched forward, driving my fist into one of his eyes. Then another. Then another. Each strike flared white-hot as light burned into his corrupted flesh until his grip tightened once and failed.

Reiko tore free and twisted as she fell, rebounding midair and kicking off the air beneath her feet as she launched back in. Her heel drove straight into the fractured base of one of his tusks.

It shattered.

Fragments scattered and dissolved into black dust as Noh-Baku howled, the dream tearing with him as the sky split and pulsed.

…

Darkness poured back into his wounds, sealing fractures and packing corruption tightly around them. His remaining tusk flared and his eyes burned cold.

“You cannot unmake me,” he thundered. “I am the whole dream now.”

He moved.

Not forward nor backward… the space between us vanishing.

His arm swept across the sky in a wide arc, his claws ripping through cloud and light alike, and the blow caught my side full on. My ribs took the blow hard and the air burst from my lungs. Something cracked. My body cartwheeled end over end, vision breaking into white flashes as I slammed shoulder-first into a slab of torn ground.

Pain detonated through me as I was buried in rubble.

I tore free only because the slab itself shattered under the force, chunks of stone and soil bursting apart as I was flung somewhat further. My breath came out in a wet gasp and blood filled my mouth.

Reiko didn’t escape either.

The same swing clipped her across the back a heartbeat later, his claws tearing into her and hurling her downward. She hit on her side and skidded through dirt and broken grass before rolling to a stop, black light flickering unevenly around her as she tried to rise and failed, one hand clawing at the ground.

I forced my body to answer.

My legs shook as I dragged myself upright in midair, my side screaming with every movement. I pressed my hand against my ribs and felt warmth spread under my fingers while my breathing broke into shallow, scraping pulls that refused to deepen.

Reiko hauled herself up at the same time, teeth clenched, blood running from her mouth. Her back stayed rigid as she forced herself into the air, the movement uneven but controlled.

For a moment, neither of us spoke while the dream shuddered around us, warped and wounded.

I twisted on instinct, trying to regain control over my aching body.

Too late.

A second strike hit my back and drove me straight down. The ground rose and vanished beneath me as I struck hard enough to break the grass and soil, dirt and stone bursting outward. My vision went white for a split second as the impact jarred my spine.

I dragged air into my lungs and tasted more iron.

I shook the cobwebs out from my head, seeing Reiko get grabbed.

One of Noh-Baku’s tails snapped around her waist and yanked her off balance midair. She drove her heel into it on reflex, but the jerk carried her straight toward his other hand. His fingers opened to close around her torso.

I moved, shooting upward through the pain and catching her wrist. My grip tightened as I hauled her sideways and tore her out of his reach. His hand closed on nothing, the strike tearing through open air where she had been a heartbeat earlier.

Reiko used the momentum to whip her body around instead of fighting it. She snapped her knee up into his wrist as it passed, then kicked again, heel first, driving into the tail that still had her. The shadowed coils jerked and loosened. Black strands tore free and whipped away.

I followed, still holding her for a split second to help her regain her balance, then letting go as I slammed my palm into the same tail. White light burst at the point of contact and drove through it. The tail recoiled, the grip breaking fully as it lashed back toward him.

Reiko did not waste the resulting opening. She flew straight in and struck his hand before he could close it again, driving her heel into his knuckles, then a tight punch into the back of his wrist. I joined her, drawing back and jamming a fist into his forearm, then another into the joint when it gave. For a moment we pushed him back together.

He answered by changing the rules again.

Darkness drove outward from him and the pressure dropped hard. My shoulders jolted. My limbs went heavy. The air around us tightened and squeezed, crushing down until my knees buckled midair.

Reiko caught my wrist and yanked me clear as the space beneath us collapsed inward, the air tearing and compressing where we had been a heartbeat earlier.

Another blow followed immediately.

His fist slammed into the space between us, the force splitting outward along both sides of his arm and striking us at once. The air burst violently and flung us apart. I spun through the open sky, momentum wrenching my body as pain tore down my arm. I fought the rotation step by step until the ground rushed up and I hit hard, my boots skidding as I landed, knees buckling before I forced myself to stay upright.

Reiko hit the ground on one knee, her breath tearing out of her, and forced herself back up anyway, her teeth bared, blood streaking her chin.

For a moment, neither of us moved as the dream convulsed around us and the sky pulsed overhead.

Reiko pulled herself level beside me again, breathing hard. My arms shook as I held position. Blood stained my sleeve and soaked into the fabric at my side.

We were bleeding, bruised, but still standing.

“Sumire,” Reiko said. “Magical girls usually have powerful finishing attacks. Based on how we fight, I have a feeling our special attack is something we do together.”

I nodded, smiling.

“Yeah… let’s finish it, my wife.”

We brought our hands together as white and black surged where they met, power tightening through our bodies while our stances locked in place.

We drove forward again, not to destroy him, but to force him, white and black cutting into the nightmare together as the fight continued.