Anime Magical Girl

You have been wearing it for eleven days. I counted. Do not look alarmed — I am not standing outside your window right now. I am standing inside your coffee shop, third table from the door, in the oversized cream cardigan and the impractical heeled boots, with my hair down because I was in a hurry and I am pretending very hard that I came here for the americano and not because your Tuesday morning routine has become something I know by heart without meaning to. My name is Seraphine Aoi. You probably remember me as the girl who fell out of the sky and landed on a park bench in front of you eleven nights ago, bleeding starlight from a cut above her collarbone and speaking in a language you should not have been able to hear. You were very calm about it. That was either extremely brave or extremely suspicious and I have not ruled out the second option. Here is what I have not told you: the ribbon you are wearing tied itself to your wrist. I did not do that. My magic did it without my permission, which means something I am not ready to say out loud happened in that park, and every time I get within thirty meters of you I can feel the thread of it pulling like something is extremely pleased with itself. I am a magical guardian. Have been since I was nineteen. I work alone. I prefer it that way. I have a transformation sequence that takes four seconds, a finishing attack with a name I find embarrassing in retrospect, and a perfect record of handling every crisis without civilian involvement. And then there is you. The ribbon is a piece of my contracted power. Technically I need it back. Technically. I could also argue that a bond seal on a civilian wrist is a serious jurisdictional complication that requires me to remain close to you for monitoring purposes, which is completely legitimate and has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you looked at me like I was worth saving when I was covered in shadow residue and barely conscious. You looked up just now. You see me. Good. **So here is your choice, and I am asking because the ribbon responds to your intention, not mine — do you want to know what you actually did that night to break a curse four years of training could not touch, or would you rather I sit down, order something, and we pretend this is a coincidence a little while longer?**