Not Your Usual Magical Girl

The living room was dead silent as Susan and Elizabeth stared each other down. It was a strange scene. Elizabeth’s head barely came over the back of the couch, resembling a groundhog. Susan was still standing frozen next to the stairs, just as she had been for the past minute as discovered her sister’s true nature.

Susan broke the standoff as she forced a grin onto her face and gave Elizabeth a wave.

“Hey.” She said as she desperately tried to ignore the mounting tension around her.

Elizabeth didn’t respond, her eyes just bored into Susan with an intensity that didn't look right on the face of a middle schooler. Thankfully she found her escape when their mother called out, “Dinner,” from the dining room.

She practically fled the living room. She darted through the kitchen, still feeling Elizabeth's stare burning into her back. It didn’t let up. Susan worriedly glanced back to see her sister following along behind her like a lion stalking its prey.

She darted into the dining room at top speed to see her mother seated at the head of the oval table they used for meals. At least the room was the same as it had been. Sports and science trophies studded the walls while a dingy china cabinet lurked in the corner.

She almost skidded into the seat next to her mother across from the entryway into the kitchen. She felt like a child hiding behind her mother’s skirt as she stared down the doorway with a level of fear she hadn’t felt in years. Chay gave her a confused look but didn't say anything.

Susan almost sighed in relief before Elizabeth walked into the dining room with all the grim majesty of an executioner. The lights in the room didn't seem to reach her face as she glared darkly at Susan.

The dinner was well and truly ruined. The nostalgic taste of cheap frozen pasta didn't even reach Susan’s tongue as she mindlessly shoveled into her mouth. She didn’t think Elizabeth was enjoying it either. She was so focused on Susan that she almost missed her mouth with the fork several times as they ate.

The audience for their staring contest looked on in annoyance. Chay was unfortunately well used to her daughters’ little spats. This one made doubly problematic because it doomed her planned talk with Susan from the start. Any attempt to engage the sisters in conversation only returned a muttered ‘sure’, or ‘okay’.

Susan could feel her eyes on both of them as they ate. Chay seemed determined to force her daughters to get along through sheer force of will. Her gaze had an intensity that was rivaled only by Elizabeth’s as she glanced between them. The combined weight of their attention worked to choke the air out of the room.

Susan fled as soon as humanly possible. She barely remembered to take her plate with her as she ran, almost throwing it into the sink as she passed by. She didn’t breathe until she was back in the safety of her room.

The familiar mess of her little sanctuary of science calmed her enough to think. For what good it did her.

Any attempt to think through what had happened only seemed to make her more confused.

Elizabeth was planning to hunt her, a dragon.

How did she plan to fight a dragon? Could she fight a dragon? What made her think it was possible to fight a dragon in the first place? Was she at that level of power? Had she fought dragons before?

Susan simply didn't know enough to make any kind of plan.

Her mind stayed trapped like that in a perpetual state of questions and more questions as time wore on. The clatter of dishes downstairs told her that dinner was over. Some time later the pad of footsteps along the call and the thunk of a door closing announced Elizabeth’s return to her room.

The sound broke Susan out of her mental flailing. Glancing up, the clock already read eight. Later than she thought.

Susan breathed out, trying to force the useless thoughts out of her brain. When that failed, she padded over to her bed and knelt on it to look out the window.

When she was younger she used to look for her father’s car as it came home every day. She would race down the stairs to greet him at the door every time she saw the familiar shape of his car pull into the driveway. She tried to call up the memory to calm herself.

She wished he was home tonight for dinner. He usually had a quip or bad joke to break up an awkward situation. Unfortunately the past couple of years he was routinely held up at work until late on weekdays. When asked he’d just said that he had to do some processing work he couldn't avoid.

Her eyes fell on a twisted piece of metal and Susan had to hold back a scream of frustration as she finally noticed the broken lock on her window. She really hadn’t been thinking last night when she had returned. Apparently the rush of getting home had pushed all thoughts of safety and subtlety straight out of her head.

As if Elizabeth needed any more evidence to connect her to the magical happenings down at the football field.

The creak of the window from the next room caught her attention.

She idly wondered if Elizabeth was doing the same thing she was. Staring out her window in an attempt to calm down.

A rhythmic creak-creaking sound came from Elizabeth’s room, moving towards her.

Susan frowned. Something was up. The roof only sounded like that when her father cleaned the gutters or late at night… Susan frowned at that thought and a connection was made in her mind that her sleep-addled brain had never managed to put together.

She pressed her face against the window only to catch a glimpse of blond hair in the corner of her vision. Her mouth fell open as she saw Elizabeth drop off the roof of the house down to her right.

Susan instantly knew what Elizabeth was doing.

She had planned out the perfect way to sneak out of the house in her head a dozen different times. You just had to move over to one of the blind spots between windows on the right side of the house. Then it was a relatively short drop to the ground from the roof. After that you could sneak through their neighbors' hedge to escape the watching eyes of the parents. She had just never done it since she wasn't an idiot.

Like Elizabeth.

Susan was out her own window before she could think. She shuffled her feet along the roof in a way she hoped her mother couldn't hear, not daring to breathe. Reaching the edge she only barely caught sight of Elizabeth jogging away from her down the sidewalk.

What to do? Follow Elizabeth or stay at home?

Panic made the decision for her. Before she realized it, she was hanging off the roof and dropping onto the grass a few feet below. She hardly thought before she had ducked through the hedge and was racing after Elizabeth.

It was still bright out when they left. The shadows stretched long over the streets around them, but it was nowhere near enough to hide Susan. She had to stay far enough back that she wasn't spotted, but close enough to see what street Elizabeth turned down.

It was a tough needle to thread. One that she wasn’t even sure she was doing properly. Thankfully Elizabeth never bothered to turn around, so despite a few hair raising moments, Susan stayed unnoticed.

As the blocks passed by, Susan quickly picked up on where they were headed. They were following the reverse path she had taken from the sports fields. It wasn’t exactly a surprise but it wasn't exactly good either. Couldn't Elizabeth have snuck out to do whatever normal sports-obsessed, otaku middle schoolers usually did?

Illicit soccer cosplaying?

Whatever.

The sports fields were strangely empty when they reached them. Susan hadn’t been to the place except for Elizabeth’s games, but she still knew that there should be some people here enjoying the cooler temperatures of the evening. If Elizabeth noticed the oddity she didn't seem surprised. She walked straight across the fields towards the football field Susan had appeared on.

Susan decided to break off Elizabeth's trail. Going through the trees that surrounded the park, she circled around to the back of the football field. As she got closer, she frowned as she felt the tingle of magical wards pass over her skin. Thankfully, there were no detection wards, but there was a barrier to stop sound. Susan frowned as she passed another one that acted as a privacy barrier.

It seemed Elizabeth hadn’t just been fixing up the fields. Susan just had to shake her head at that and keep going. As she neared the field she found a pine tree thick enough to hide her and peeked around it.

The field was not a pretty sight even under the dim light of the setting sun. Susan hadn’t realized that her claws and tail had gouged out lines in the turf. Her clothing rune had even been roughly traced in chalk at the center of the field.

Thankfully her guess that Elizabeth was headed to the football field had turned out to be correct. The girl in question had walked onto the field half a minute after Susan had found a spot to hide. She came to a stop in the center of the field, looking down at the chalked rune.

Susan wondered for the hundredth time what was going through her head. Elizabeth didn't seem to do anything as she stood there. She seemed content to stand there alone in the field.

“I know you're there.”

Elizabeth’s voice hit Susan like a slap to the face.

She almost jumped in surprise but held it back, huddling closer to the gnarled bark of the tree hiding her.

“Come on ‘Susan’ I know you're there.” Elizabeth's voice rang out again. Susan didn't like how Elizabeth said her name, like it was some kind of insult.

Still, the gig was up. The whole situation stank of a trap, but those were never her expertise anyway. It was easier to trip the wire and see what happened.

Taking a breath, Susan straightened up and walked around from behind the tree.

“Hey Elizabeth, sorry about following you. I was worried when you snuck off like that.” She called back.

Elizabeth did not respond immediately. Her eyes raked Susan up and down in a distinctly threatening way.

“Uh… Elizabeth?” Susan repeated, walking closer.

“Where’s Susan?” Elizabeth’s answer came back, harsh and demanding.

‘Uh oh.’ Susan muttered to herself. She stopped advancing. She really had screwed things up last night. It didn't take a genius to spot the evidence of a magic beast and transformation. Then add in the fact that her draconic body radiated magic like a bonfire, and you had evidence for a body snatcher.

But why did it have to be Elizabeth that did the detective work?

“I said. Where’s my sister?” Her voice cut off Susan’s thinking.

“Okay, I think we have a bit of a misunderstanding-”

“WHERE’S MY SISTER!” Elizabeth screamed over her.

“I AM YOU’RE SISTER,” Susan roared back.

Elizabeth’s expression darkened. “Alright then,” She spoke quieter but still more than loud enough for Susan to hear. “I’ll beat it out of you.”

She kicked her legs apart, put one hand on her hip and threw the other skyward in an idol pose.

“TRANSFORM!” She cried in a voice that echoed across the fields.

Light blinded Susan for a moment as a glowing rune exploded into existence around Elizabeth’s feet.

When she blinked the spots out of her eyes she looked back to see the light flowing around Elizabeth like water. The light quickly condensed, shaping around Elizabeth until it formed… a dress?

It was something straight out of one of those anime she liked. A shimmering dress with puffed sleeves and a miniskirt Susan would have mocked in any other circumstance. The dress was a dark red at the top that faded to a deep blue when it reached the skirt covered in glittering silver stars. A matching silver tiara, plus stockings and shoes completed the ensemble.

Susan had to stop herself from laughing. Her sister had finally obsessed over magical girls so much she had managed to make herself into one.

A movement from Elizabeth made her refocus. She raised a hand into the air, pointing it at Susan.

“Disillusion,” She intoned.

Susan grimaced as the wave of magic blew past her. She felt her transformation spell unravel as her body began to change.

Susan knew the jig was up the moment Elizabeth saw her true form.

There was no part of her dragon body that implied any kind of peace. She stood on the ground with muscle bound legs ending in foot long claws. A head the size of a small car sported a mouth full of shark-like teeth the width of a forearm.

Enormous whitish-gray scales were arrayed like armored ribs over a torso the size of a school bus. On her back a set of wings carefully tucked against her torso fluttered nervously.

She was designed top to bottom for violence.

It was not a good look for convincing little sisters she meant no harm.

Elizabeth seemed to agree as stepped backwards into a martial arts stance.

“So it really was a dragon.” She said, her voice projecting over the fields like she was some kind of cartoon hero giving a speech.

“WOULD YOU CHILL FOR A SECOND!” Susan bellowed in response. Her roar startled Elizabeth and she took another step back in response.

“So that’s how it’s gonna be.” Elizabeth said to herself.

“Wait-” Susan began but it was too late. In an instant Elizabeth was leaping at her in a flying kick aimed right at her head. Susan dodged the attack with a casual twist of her neck, letting her sail past. Negotiating with her insane sister might be impossible, but she could do fighting.

She had to hold back a chuckle as Elizabeth’s brightly colored uniform rushed past her with such speed that she completely overshot her landing, flying into the trees. The distant crash and roar of falling wood told her that Elizabeth’s landing wasn't comfortable. Turning around she saw Elizabeth standing over a fallen pine tree, facing away from her.

She held back a snicker. It was clear from Elizabeth’s stiff posture that she was trying to hide her embarrassment. A huff of air escaped her lips. Elizabeth whirled around in a fury.

“You think this is funny?” She roared. “Where’s my sister?”

She reached behind her, picked up the pine tree she had knocked over and threw it at Susan.

It wasn’t a small tree, at three feet wide and fifty feet tall it was enough to completely block out Susan’s line of sight as it careened towards her with the force of a freight train. So when she ducked her head underneath it, she was completely caught off guard at the sight of Elizabeth flying towards her fist first.

Her eyes widened in shock. She couldn't dodge this time and the attack caught her full in the chest.

Elizabeth was only the size and weight of a human but her magically empowered punch still managed to send the multi-ton form of Susan stumbling. Susan barely had a second to get her bearings before Elizabeth was flying at her again.

A backhand caught her sister midair, sending her careening back into the forest with a shriek. Something about the sight of her sister cartwheeling across the quarter mile to the woods brought a vindictive smile to Susan’s face.

She settled back on her haunches to wait, barely out of breath. A moment later Elizabeth stomped back out of the woods.

“Ready to talk yet?” Susan’s voice boomed across the field.

Elizabeth screamed and charged Susan. Each step rocked the ground beneath her and sent her flying forwards.

Susan could only curse her big mouth before Elizabeth was on her, throwing punch after punch. Her tactics had changed, no longer using big charging attacks. Instead she was taking small leaps back and forth, throwing a punch or kick every time. The strange leapfrogging attacks came at lightning speed, Elizabeth zipped back and forth like an angry bouncy ball.

Susan could barely keep up, dodging each punch. Her bulky body slowed her down and she caught glancing blows from Elizabeth.

Susan didn't want to strike back, Elizabeth would easily dodge her attacks after all. Instead she waited.

It took a few long, terrifying seconds of dodging attacks flying in like bullets. Finally, her opportunity came. Elizabeth launched some sort of spinning axe kick attack. In the moment she hung in the air, Susan leaned forward and launched a breath of air at her.

The gust caught Elizabeth and threw her back across the field. She landed in a superhero pose, one hand and knee on the ground as she caught herself before she hit the ground. Her eyes never left Susan as she knelt there, panting from the exertion. She barely stayed there a second before she was charging back at Susan once again.

However, Susan was ready this time. Elizabeth probably noticed as her hips swayed back and forth and her tail moved oddly behind her. But her expression when the tip of Susan’s tail swung around her and hit her with a thunderous whip-crack was one of pure surprise.

In an instant she was gone again, the sound of shattering wood off in the distance the only sign of her departure.

Susan sighed. Now that the itch to smack her brain dead sister around had been scratched she was finally thinking straight again. She really wasn't sure how to deal with this. Her chances of talking Elizabeth down from her rampage were low. Add in the fact that Elizabeth was currently attacking her and it got even more difficult.

Her thoughts were cut off as a fist slammed into her chin.

She hadn’t even seen Elizabeth move. The girl had practically teleported in front of her face.

Her head snapped back, the force of the blow enough to lift her torso off the ground.

A pair of hands grabbed the base of her tail where it met the ground and pulled up. Susan yelped in confusion as her body tilted back, then back again. She realized something was wrong when she felt her feet leave the ground. Elizabeth heaved up with a roar, Susan roared as well as she was lifted up and off the ground.

She hung in the air for a moment, before gravity and Elizabeth’s iron grip on her tail pulled her back down. She hit the ground on her back with a small explosion of dirt and sod.

The field was silent afterwards except for the heaving breaths of Elizabeth as she fought to catch her breath.

Susan lay stunned in a roughly dragon shaped crater. Her instincts told her to get up and keep fighting. Her mind instead decided to take a break and chill while she tried to figure out what had just happened.

Elizabeth… had suplexed her.

Elizabeth had suplexed a dragon.

She would have laughed at the sight, if only Elizabeth had done it to someone else.

Susan didn’t notice when the sound of Elizabeth’s breathing vanished. She did notice when a hand grabbed her chin and yanked it up. Without warning the felled tree from earlier was shoved directly into her mouth like a bit.

Her mouth snapped shut in fury. The log, intended as a gag, was reduced to splinters that she spat out in a hail of ruined wood. She rolled over and pushed up with all four limbs to bring herself to her full height.

It took real effort this time to hold back from attacking Elizabeth. One proper breath attack and… Well that would be sibling-icide, not exactly a solution for the problem at hand.

Elizabeth stood in front of her “You’re pretty tough, aren’t you?” She shouted at her.

Susan’s mouth opened to respond. Before she could get a word out Elizabeth was leaping towards her. Susan’s body was already moving to the side as she saw her move but Elizabeth wasn't aiming for it.

Before Susan could react Elizabeth was in her mouth and down her throat. Her eyes widened before battle hardened reflex had her clamp her throat down on her sister.

A surprised shriek echoed strangely in Susan’s chest as Elizabeth realized her predicament.

“Why the heck is your throat armored?” She screamed.

Susan smirked in response. Elizabeth had fallen for one of her favorite tricks. Plenty of enemies she had faced came up with the idea to attack her from the inside. It was a classic move when fighting giant opponents after all. An armored throat, though she had it for reasons incidental to fighting, had stopped those plans in their tracks many times already.

A claw reached down to the field below her and began carving a rune into the ground as Elizabeth's screaming continued.

A short minute later a slightly tinny version of Susan’s voice echoed around her as the sound rune activated.

“Ready to talk now?” Though artificial, the rune still managed to convey some measure of smugness.

“GIVE ME BACK MY SISTER!” Elizabeth screamed.

Susan was taken aback by the desperation in her voice. She hadn’t fully considered the context of the fight. She had only thought of her annoying sister refusing to listen to her. Not a girl desperate to save a sister she thought was stolen away.

She needed to help her-

“COME ON YOU FAT LIZARD!”

“I’M RIGHT HERE YOU BRAIN DEAD IDIOT!” The artificial voice roared over the fields.

Susan could feel Elizabeth stop moving.

Sensing an opportunity she quickly leaned forward and spat her sister out on the turf in front of her. Elizabeth's dress was crumpled and soaked in spit but as she stood it magically righted itself. The spit dried and the creases straightened until it was immaculate again.

The girl who wore it remained a sniveling mess. Tears streaked her face and she quietly hiccuped out a desperate, “Prove it.”

“Okay,” Susan stood tall and held a finger to her chin as she thought back. “You’re Elizabeth, my idiot sister. You love magical girl shows, you're obsessed with sports, and you won't clean out the shower drain.”

She could see Elizabeth’s desperate expression fade and she tried to quietly scrub her tears as Susan talked.

“You cry when the bad guy wins in movies and once tried to adopt a raccoon. You came home crying when you were in fifth grade because Vivian from your class stole your science fair award. I’m the one who had to break into your room and feed your hamster when you used to forget-”

“Okay, okay I get it. You're actually my sister.” Elizabeth’s tone was back to its former brashness but Susan could hear the relief in it. “But… how?”

Susan grimaced, not at all excited to have to explain her dragon-ness again, “Well… have you ever heard of isekai?”

Elizabeth stared at her for a few seconds, as her mouth furled in confusion.

“What’s isekai?”

Susan sighed, “Alright, I’ll get to it. But first, let's get the field fixed up.”

The field around them was absolutely destroyed. The aftermath of their fight left it looking like a war zone. Splintered wood was spread like chaff everywhere while the grass was carved with dozens of enormous gouges from Susan’s claws and Elizabeth’s attacks. The crater from Elizabeth’s suplex sat as the centerpiece of destruction, fifty feet in long and ten feet deep.

If it rained soon Susan was reasonably sure it would look more like a mud pit than a sports field.

Still, the damage wasn't much when faced with the sheer magical might of the sisters. Elizabeth had much easier access to repair magic than Susan’s runes, throwing out spells with the same infuriating ease as her earlier disillusionment spell.

In the end it only took a few minutes to repair the field. Once they were done they sat together on the edge, facing towards the distant suburbs.

Susan laid down, lowering her head so that she could look her sitting sister in the eye without Elizabeth craning her head.

It didn’t take long for Elizabeth to wrap her head around the concept of ‘world hopping plus superpowers’.

”So basically, you got summoned to another world?”

“Pretty much,” Susan said with a shrug.

“So you woke up like that?

“No, actually…” Susan paused as she tried to plan out a decent explanation, “Okay before we begin, how much do you actually know about dragons?”

“Uh, they're big and stompy and I have to fight them off every once in a while.”

“Right, of course,” Susan muttered

“Hey!”

Susan cut her off with a glare

“Fine, go ahead,” Elizabeth pouted back.

“Right, so,” Susan took a deep breath as she tried to organize her thoughts. “To begin with, dragons aren’t born, in fact they're not even really a species. Dragons are made.”

Elizabeth stared back at her.

“Yeah I kinda figured that out,” She said with all the know-it-all smarminess of a middle schooler.

“Really?”

“Uh, yeah. I fought one made of molten metal once, seemed pretty obvious.”

“Oh, ok. So anyway, to become a dragon you have to use magic to rebuild your body into a form better suited to magic, that being a dragon.

“Uh, why?”

“What.”

“Why would anyone do that?”

Susan had to take a minute to think that over. She knew why people became dragons, but the innocent question of what hubris drove people to those suicidal heights in the first place put her on the back foot.

She shook her head and refocused. “Okay, let me start from the beginning.”