View source for Harsh Light (Hana Shiroi: The Second Dream)

{{Cutscene Header
|Date of Scene=2003/08/03
|Location=Japan
|Synopsis=Hana is now a Magical Girl, but the life of a Puella is not what she had envisioned.
|Tinyplot=Dreams of the White Flower
}}
Beginning the week of November 14th, some magical denizens of Tokyo begin to have a series of rather odd dreams. These dreams are incredibly vivid, almost like watching a movie, and upon comparing notes, those who do so will find their dreams to be exactly the same in every respect. They occur on the same nights, and every detail is identical for those who have them, as if the same movie was played in everybody's heads.

((OOC Note: These dreams are opt-in. They are related to a developing TP. Any magical denizen of Tokyo could possibly have them, especially those strongly tied to dreams, but it is equally possible your character does not have them. It is completely up to you to decide.))

The second dream:

It’s nighttime, somewhere in Japan. It’s not Tokyo, although there are plenty of tall buildings glittering with lights- some other city, then, large and modern but elsewhere in the country.

A trio of magical girls leap from rooftop to rooftop. Two of these do so with effortless grace, clearly used to their powers, landing easily and running across the flat surfaces before leaping to the next.

The third struggles to keep up. Her leaps are not confident, and she’s falling behind the others. Finally noticing this, the two girls in the lead come to a stop on top of a tall building, turning to wait for the third. Their postures speak of displeasure.


When the lagging girl finally arrives, stumbling to a halt and panting slightly, the first of the two lead girls scowls. Her outfit is red and gold. “God, Hana, can’t you even keep up on a normal patrol? It’s not like we’re doing anything hard.”


The second girl, in an outfit of green and blue, sniffs, tossing long blonde hair. “I told you, she’s useless. We never should have agreed to team up with her.”


The third girl, the one who had been lagging behind, is in an outfit which is almost entirely white. It has a theme of flowers, with several large blossoms which look like lotuses at her waist, and one in her long dark hair. Recovering her breath slightly after a few moments, she straightens, eyes widening.

“I-I’m not useless! You guys are just going too fast…” Her voice gets smaller and then trails off under the withering glares the two. After a moment, she drops her dark eyes to stare uncomfortably at the rooftop under her feet.

“Ugh.. how long have you been a Puella Magi, Hana? Three months now?” The red and gold girl says, with a hint of disgust in her voice. “You need to pick up the pace. We do dangerous work and we can’t be carrying you the whole time.”


“Yeah, not only are you awful at moving around, you can’t even fight well.” The green and blue girl adds, with a sniff. “What kind of power do you have anyway? As far as I can tell, it’s not much use at all.”


“It is useful!” Hana blurts , looking up with a defiant glint in her dark eyes. “I can imagine things, and then they appear! It’s super useful!” After a moment the heat in her gaze dies, and she looks down again. “It just.. Takes a while. And they don’t.. Always turn out the way I want..”

The red and gold girl sighs. “Look, Hana. It’s a tough world out here. We all have to do our best to earn our Grief Seeds. Teaming up makes sense- we can kill more Witches and split the seeds. But you’re not really helping us. Half the time we have to put ourselves in danger just to save you from whatever trouble you’ve gotten into, making it harder to kill Witches, not easier.”

“And you still expect a third of the profits!” The blue and green girl says, shaking her head.

“We can’t keep doing this,” Red and Gold continues. “Look at Hiori here.. She was a Puella half as long as you and she was already killing Witches all on her own! Can’t you be more like her?”


Hana seems to shrink into herself at the criticism, her shoulders hunching and her eyes still directed at the floor. “I don’t want to be like her.” She mutters. “I just want to be who I am.”


“Well.. who you are is useless.” Red and Gold says, with a toss of her own reddish curls. “So either shape up, or learn to fend for yourself.”

And then the two girls are leaping off again, leaving Hana alone on the rooftop. Her hands curled into fists, fighting back sniffles.

After a moment, she trudges to the edge of the roof and leaps off after them.