"I tell you, she wears the uniform so she has to be part of the group," a boy near her argued.
"By that logic Donald Duck would be a Sailor Senshi, you never see her with the others she is probably just a copycat Magical Girl jumping on the sailor uniform bandwagon," one of his friends countered.
She moved on. It was surreal. In theory Hotaru should have been an expert on Magical Girls.
She was a Magical Girl after all! That should count for something but as she listened to people arguing about the comparative strength of various magical attacks she realized that she barely knew anything.
How hot was the flame of Sailor Mars' attack? Ami probably knew to the kelvin.
And then there were all the other Magical Girls that Hotaru only knew from rumors. The people here were trying to keep track of every new attack, power-upgrade or costume change that any of them got.
In the corner a few kids were playing a card game that appeared to provide numeric values for anything from firepower to cuteness factor for the various Magical Girls.
Hotaru wondered if there was a card for Sailor Saturn. It was unlikely that anyone would ever want to play it if it gave an accurate representation of her powers.
Not that the fans here had necessarily gotten everything right. She realized as she listened to what the other customer were discussing, that some of them had clearly no idea what they were talking about.
Hotaru did not know what a Saint Pure Sword was, but there was no way that it was better than the Space Sword. She almost had joined a discussion to tell the boys and girls arguing just that, but she just walked by the group. She would have liked to dare to join their discussion, but they probably would have rejected her anyway.
Some other discussions she had no desire to join.
"... is no such thing as magic, it is all done with technology. Those girls are probably robots or cyborgs and they hide the fact that they are incredible killing machines by giving them such a cute appearance," a boy in one such group explained his theory.
"I don't know. If somebody could build robots like this, why not mass produce them? There certainly would be a market for that sort of product," One of his listeners objected.
"They probably are far to expensive for people like us. I guess it is like space flight - the technology is there, but only governments and millionaires can afford it," speculated a third.
"I bet that secretly there are magical girl robots available already to people who are rich enough. They probably sell or rent out the old ones that don't really have much fight left in them anymore as personal servants or something," the first boy picked up the thread again.
"That would be cool having your own super powerful robot-girl who is spending her retirement from fighting alien menaces as your personal maid," his fellow conspiracy theorist envisioned.
Hotaru gave that bunch of paranoid perverts a wide breath, but she had to admit that however inane their theories were, she had no way of knowing whether there might not be some truth to it as far as some of the other Magical Girls were concerned.
Hotaru came to an aisle of imitation plastic wands and other items that looked far too cheep and kitschy to be likely representations of the stuff that magical girls usually used. They probably did not carry a Silence Glaive in their range of products.
This way led to the costume section which was populated mostly by girls. Hotaru was here to get a birthday present and she doubted that she would find something suitable there.
Hotaru was not sure what Shiori exactly liked, she just knew that she was a fan of Magical Girls. Hotaru would have to choose something popular and hope for that she would like it and not already have it.
She made her way to the part of the store where she had seen her parents earlier. The area was very crowded. Hotaru disliked crowds and normally avoided them, but you did not find popular products by going to the shelves that nobody showed any interest in.
Most of the boys and girls around her were far taler then her and Hotaru had no way to see over their shoulders to find out what the tables she was trying to reach actually contained.
From the comments she could overhear it was likely a special display devoted entirely to merchandise for an especially popular Magical Girl. Depending on who you believed she was either "Cool", "Mysterious", "Totally Kick ass!", "So Cute!" or even "Sexy". As she pushed her self through the crowd with as much assertiveness as she could muster, Hotaru wondered if it was a girl she knew.
Maybe she could even get whatever present she selected autographed by the Magical Girl in question if it was one of her fellow Sailors. Of course it would probably a bad idea to tell someone like Minako that she had a devoted fanbase.
Hotaru's musing were interrupted as a gap opened up before her and she had to quickly move forward.
Now that she could finally the wares that were offered and the poster hanging above them Hotaru almost physically recoiled as soon as she reached the table, but other customers stepping up behind her prevented her from retreating.
"Don't Fear the Reaper!" the poster said, but Hotaru felt not at all reassured by what she saw.
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(Posted Mon, 20 Dec 2004 23:34)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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