It took a while, but Hiro managed to convince most people that the girl they saw, was just a friend from the internet. It helped that Hiro actually went as Hikari to their computers, to explain her situation. Her story was that she was a peculiar kind of life form, that seemed to exist in both the digital world and partly in the physical- as long as a cyborg was providing the run time. At least- that was the story she gave. It gave Hiro to explore a lot of things as Hikari.
Hiro was curious about something though. He had gone through a lot of servers, but he never tried to see what would happen, if he ran the hosting program without the internet around. Attempting to do so, he found himself in a brief blackness.. Then in the most dazzling city, he could have ever imagined.
he was a girl now- of course. This avatar had red hair. Not just normal red hair, but really red. There was a bit of a pirate motif to her, with a futuristic scanner on his eye, and a long red coat.
The girl... was inside her own host!
The strangeness of the situation made Hikari buckle. She was inside Hiro's body... and Hiro was inside her... so... this was her existing in recursion? Freaky...
Hikari went through all of her systems, walking along it as she had other servers . She even introduced herself to the Nano machines inside the cyborg. They seemed to understand who she was... which was quite a bizarre situation. They acted almost like pets, wanting to get close to her. She had to explain she wanted to see what they normally did and to just ignore her.
The nanomachines oblidged, and showed how they repaired damaged tissue, or dealt with an invading lifeform... artificial or otherwise. Hikari was starting to get a much deeper understand of how her body worked... it was hard to believe this entire city, was her..
She went inside Hiro's mind, to see the way everything linked up there- which was possibly, one of the most freakiest things she could imagine doing. Everything she saw, reacted in some way to being seen. Which of course is exactly what would happen, as she was both observer, and observed... the paradox was driving neurons to fire like crazy to deal with this situation.
She connected Hiro's systems to the internet, to see if she could signal Riko.
"Hi.. Riko?" she called.
Hello, messaged the tiger fairy. You're Hikari right? I heard Hiro had a new digital fairy. I hope its working out for you?
"Oh... yes its not too bad," said Hikari. "Um- Hiro misses you though... would you like to come by some time?"
Hiro's systems can't handle more then one of us though, said Riko.
"That wont be a problem. I'm... I'm a very lightweight being to Hiro." Hikari said glancing around. She was Hiro... so therefore, she didn't actually need runtime, as long as Hiro was working. "Please... come by?"
okay... standby
Riko teleported inside. "I see you've been looking around the place," said Riko. "Hiro's systems are quite unique. You probably haven't seen anything like them on the internet.
Hikari glanced around. "Well- I only changed recently. I havn't actually been to any other places besides here and the computer" she said a little nervously.
"Oh? Well that's no good. We have to bring you online! You'll love it. We're hoping to build a community. Who knows? You might even meet someone you like there" She grinned.
Hikari blushed madly. "I- er- I don't think thats possible for me. I'm not a normal sort of digital fairy."
"You seem pretty normal to me... we're all quite different. I'm sure you'll fit right in. I'll help you out."
Hikari wanted to tell Riko the truth of who she was... but the idea of telling anyone this didn't make her feel good. Especially as Riko seemed to be so friendly to her. No that she wasn't friendly before, but... this was different. It was like being equals. Also, the idea of being someone that didn't have Hiro's hangups was also too enticing to just say no to. She'll see what the internet is like, then tell the truth...
"Okay Riko," smiled Hikari. "Where do we go first?"
Riko smiled. "Come on, I'll show you some nice places."
Over the weeks that followed, Lilly continued to learn the basics of the power of magic.
It was slow... so very slow... she wasn't sure if she had a real talent for it, but her friends were very encouraging. The little girl smiled at that... going back to being a child and getting to live her life again, minus the mistakes... it was actually a very kind gift. She wasn't really sure about being a girl... but right now she had to admit, she enjoyed it.
Still...
There was an element of guilt in her mind. She couldn't really place where the guilt came from. Maybe it was in seeing Jon... lash out. She prayed and hoped to every star that Jon would be okay... that she could just be as happy, as she was. There was of course, another guilty feeling as she glanced at the sunlight. The young girl had to admit to herself, she missed the rainbow sun. It was colourful, and exciting. Even with Jon's wish that this light might sometimes change people, it looked like a very rare occurrence.
Lilly had a feeling, she would know if people had the capacity to accept a transformation. She also knew, what a sacrifice it could be... having been from the highs, to the lows... questioning her very nature and reality, all from the perspective of young girl that really shouldn't be thinking so much- but the fact that she was once older, made the innocence that much more precious to her too.
The squirrel girl spent many days after school in her tree house. She collected the various things that brought attention to her instincts. Mostly dried fruits and nuts. She stored the more valuable things under her bed, in her own room.
There was one item, that she treasured greatly. Inside, was a picture of magic girl four, Artemis, Lucas, Selune... and of course, The Woman Venus, Herself. In this book, Lilly wrote all her thoughts on magic... and sometimes her personal feelings. One day, she hoped to make a great spell book...
She opened up her closet, and lamented the sight she saw- of the fake magic girl uniform, that the enemy had made for her. It was... everything, she had imagined it could be. The colours, the pattern...everything was perfect. The white and yellow mixed into swirling colours, that enhanced the appearance of agility and... just something other worldly, and beyond the imagination.
aside from it being utterly fake, and would afford no protection at all.
"Will I ever be a real magic girl?" she asked herself... The magic that she and the others in the circle have done so far, wasn't exactly the stuff of battles. The most advanced thing Lilly had found, was to join sheets of cloth together. That was indeed, how she repaired the magic girl uniform. Karyn had shown how she styled her hair... something Lilly still couldn't quite work out how.
She looked out her window, staring at the normal sunlight... "Is there any more magic left, in the world to discover?" she asked herself. Maybe this... really was it.
Suddenly, she heard the light sound of a tap as something hit the windowsill. Curiously, she opened the window to have a look. On it, was a strange... white card. But even stranger, was that it was standing at an angle...
She picked it up, and read it. "You are invited... bring one token."
Lilly furrowed her brow. What in the world...did this mean? She looked around hoping to find who threw it... but didn't find anything.
