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Sometimes, Jack wished he was actually as dumb as he liked to play being around the brass. Unfortunately, for all that he wasn’t Daniel, he wasn't an idiot.
The problem was this: Jack was in the habit of keeping a gun on him, and after the last alien invasion, he was disinclined to stop unless told to his face to do so. Even when on a diplomatic visit to Japan with the rest of SG-1 at his side. A few of the local cops had given him sideways looks, but he could handle that.
What he could not handle was the middle schooler whose gaze had been on the exact location of the gun for upward of half a minute, before narrowing her eyes and looking him up and down again.
Jack had a sinking suspicion that she was looking for the ammo.
She wasn't scared, and that’s what scared him. He doesn’t even like to think “kid” and “gun” in the same sentence, but clearly someone else had no compunctions about it, because there was nothing on the girl’s face but concentration.
Did she see him as a threat? Was she planning to pickpocket him before having second thoughts?
There wasn’t the slightest irregularity in the lines of her school uniform to indicate that she had anything hidden. Maybe something under the hairband? She didn’t have a single visible scar or bruise, and while the ring she wore would add a little extra hurt to a punch, it looked more like an heirloom than anything.
Someone cleared their throat, and Jack realizes that he’d been staring at a middle schooler. Not a good look.
Sam glared at him, but Daniel was the first one to speak.
“What was that about?”
“She saw my gun,” Jack said.
“The concealed one?”
“Think she was looking for ammo,” Jack said.
“She was probably just nervous,” Sam suggested. “The nearest US base isn’t that close. You’re probably the first soldier she’s seen.”
“Then how’d she know exactly where my gun was?” Jack asked.
“Is that not a normal skill for local children?” Teal’c asked.
“No, of course not!” Jack snapped.
“This nation is under occupation, is it not?” Teal’c asked. “It would stand to reason that some might start training their children at a young age to resist your nation’s forces.”
“We aren’t occupying them,” Jack started. “I mean, we have bases here, but it’s not—”
“It’s complicated,” Daniel interrupted. “We occupied them directly in the past, but the bases that are still here are because of a treaty we signed…”
“Maybe we should wait until we’re back at the hotel to explain the aftermath of World War II to Teal’c,” Sam suggested, tilting her head slightly toward one of their escorts, who was obviously both fluent in English and displeased with their explanation of the US military presence in Japan.
So Jack shut his mouth and kept half an eye out for the girl throughout the rest of the day, until they finally got to the hotel room.
He meant to undress and put the gun in the hotel safe overnight, but the jet lag and the soothing sound of Daniel nerding out about history combined to put him to sleep. So the gun stayed right where it had been all day, tucked against Jack’s side.
When he woke up, it was gone.
::::::::::
Daniel thought they should start by questioning the hotel workers, but Jack was convinced there was something more complicated going on. He wouldn’t have slept through someone getting close enough to reach under his jacket, much less actually someone actually doing so. None of the others would have either, not unless they were all drugged. And if they had been, they would’ve felt it when they woke up.
Jack would suspect the NID, but there’s no way they’d bother using whatever tech they were coming up with now to pickpocket Jack’s standard army Beretta. They could requisition one of their own if they wanted one. Pretty much everyone else with access to the kind of tech they’d need to pull this off was the same: either they have access to guns of their own, or they have no interest in guns in the first place and if they could successfully get access to Jack while unconscious they’d be more likely to just slit his throat than to steal from him.
That was why, as Jack explained to the others, it had to have something to do with the middle schooler.
“It wouldn’t be the first time someone’s used a kid to get the jump on us,” he said.
“Yeah, on other planets,” Sam replied.
“How would this girl have gotten into the hotel?” Teal’c asked.
“Still figuring that part out,” Jack said. “But I know it was her.”
Daniel sighed. “I’ll go see if I can get someone to pull a few security cameras.”
They ended up in a messy office in the back of the nearest police station, watching a surveillance tape on one of the officer’s many monitors.
The surveillance footage started out unremarkable. The girl showed up on the cameras of a nearby convenience store, then at an ATM machine. Then, she ducked into the alley behind the local hospital, and the camera glitched. When it flickered back into focus, she was gone. The cop rewinded it a few times, looking frustrated, but the problem was clearly with the footage and not the player the cop was using.
“Can we identify her?” Sam asked.
Daniel translated, and the cop fussed around with the computer a bit. All the while, the girl’s image stayed frozen on the monitor, in the moment before the camera cuts out entirely. The image was strange, blurred in a way that started from the girl and spread outwards. The corners of the image were as crisp as security footage got, but the girl was little more than a smudge in the shape of a person.
The cop started talking again, and Daniel immediately translated.
“Her name is Akemi Homura, Akemi is the family name,” Daniel said. “She’s a student at Mitakihara Middle School. Her guardians are out of the country, and she’s recently out of the country. She had a….hmmm,” he switched back into Japanese for several minutes of rapidfire dialogue before continuing, “Officer Takagi overstepped a bit in terms of sharing information, but she was recently released from the hospital after undergoing some kind of heart surgery. Before that she went to, get this, Catholic school. Still think she’s involved?”
“No parental supervision means she’s vulnerable to someone who wants a patsy that can’t be charged as an adult,” Sam observed.
“She doesn’t have a criminal record,” Daniel said. He squinted at the computer screen. “She is wanted for questioning, though.”
“Oh, really?” Jack asked.
Daniel started talking to Takagi again, presumably to ask what the investigation was about. But when Takagi answered his question, Daniel turned pale. He held up two fingers, and repeated back some of what Takagi said. Takagi, whose expression had turned serious, nodded and brought up two images on another monitor.
They’re girls, roughly Homura’s age and dressed in the same school uniform she’d been wearing when Jack saw her. One had a short, choppy bob, while the other’s hair was curled into Shirley Temple ringlets and gathered into bunches on either side of her neck.
“Two girls from Homura’s school have recently gone missing,” Daniel said, voice strained. “Tomoe Mami and Miki Sayaka. Sayaka shared a homeroom with Homura, and their classmates report that Sayaka seemed angry with Homura shortly before she disappeared.”
“Is Homura a person of interest?”
Takagi apparently understood enough English to nod, and then started speaking to Daniel.
“They don’t think she’s responsible, but the officers investigating are sure she knows something,” Daniel translated. “They can’t get a hold of her guardian to get permission to bring her into the station for questioning so far, but they haven’t given up.”
Takagi said something else, and Daniel asked a few questions before turning back to the rest of SG-1.
“Apparently there’s been a number of recent disappearances in the area involving girls their age. Whatever’s been happening seems to primarily involve girls who were undergoing significant stress, so they were initially written off as suicides. But most of the girls have yet to be found, and the few that did turn up were far from both where they were last seen and the popular suicide spots.”
“The girls that were found, where they…” Jack started.
Takagi frowned and made a slashing motion across his neck, then added something in Japanese.
“There’s still been some normal runaway incidents, of course,” Daniel translated, “but these are different.”
“Different how?” Teal’c asked. Takagi turns to him, wide-eyed, probably having been convinced until now that the man didn’t speak.
After Daniel translated the question, he relayed Takagi’s answer. “The missing girls are all preteens, and none of them seem to have packed anything or prepared. In Tomoe’s case, she lived alone, but didn’t even clean out her fridge. A lot of them were acting oddly before they vanished—in Miki’s case, her parents reported that she was depressed and irritable. Finally, several of the girls had friends who seemed to know what had happened but refused to cooperate with questioning.”
“So, what, child trafficking?”
“They don’t know,” Daniel reported. He said something to Takagi, who responded. “When they do find a body, the girl is usually either entirely unhurt, or injured in ways that indicate—let me double check…” He started talking to Takagi again, who said something very firmly, then mimes….a bazooka?
“Yeah, uh, at least one of them looks like she was under artillery fire before she died,” Daniel said. “Ballistics said there was a bazooka involved.”
“This is suburban Japan,” Jack said, dumbfounded. “Who even has a bazooka here?”
“Well, someone who didn’t used to have one has a Beretta now,” Sam pointed out.
“You think there’s someone stealing weapons to use them on middle schoolers?” Jack asked. “Why?”
Takagi shrugged, and Daniel shrugged along with him.
::::::::::::::
The only reasonable thing to do now was to go to the middle school. Jack was reminded several times that he didn’t have parent or guardian permission to talk to Homura. Jack, in response, pulled rank. This was a national security issue, and he was allowed to at least talk to the girl if he had reason to suspect she was in the hotel room of several high-ranking US officers for nefarious purposes.
Which he did.
Okay, he had a hunch and faith that no one was going to come after him over this decision until he either embarrassed himself out of the military or proved himself right.
It was nearly the end of the day when they make it to Homura’s classroom. One seat was empty, and only a few desks away was Homura, looking just as stone cold while doing equations as she did when scanning Jack for the location of his ammo. Her eyes were dark and intense, until the moment they opened the door. Then they flew wide in surprise, as if they’d actually come in guns blazing.
Daniel said something to the teacher, who crossed her arms, but then, he started laying on the charm, and she melted, gesturing for Homura to go with them.
Homura frowned, glanced towards a classmate with her hair pulled up in bunches, and then wilted, just slightly.
“Make this fast,” she said in English. Her accent was noticeable, but her tone was confident, and it’s clear this wasn't her first time speaking English outside the classroom. “I’ve got things to do today.”
The teacher called her name in a scolding voice, but Homura had already ducked between Sam and Teal’c and was headed down the hallway.
“Where’s my gun?” Jack asked, because he didn’t believe in beating around the bush.
“I don’t know why you’re asking me that,” Homura replied, without turning around. Her loafers clacked against the hallway floor as she walks, tapping out a rapid beat.
“Because you’re one of the only people who actually noticed I had it, and now it’s gone,” Jack replied.
“How would a girl like myself get into an army officer’s hotel room?” Homura asked, brushing a bit of her long hair over her shoulder.
“How’d you know we were staying in a hotel?” Jack responded.
Her gait falters, the beat of her soles against tile stuttering, and it’s all Jack needed.
“Where is it?” he asked. “And how the hell did you get into our room without us noticing?”
“You can’t arrest me,” Homura said, spinning on her heel.
The school’s bell chimed, and the students poured out of their classrooms, filling the air with chatter and footsteps.
“No, we can’t, but—”
Jack blinked, and Homura was gone. Maybe she just melted into the crowd, maybe it was a trick, but…he had eyes on her, he looked away for less than a second! How was that even possible?
“I got her home address from Takagi,” Daniel said.
::::::::::::
Even with the driver the Japanese Embassy gave them, it still took them around a half hour to get to the apartment building where Homura lives, apparently by herself. It was an impressive place, with columns flanking the doorway and decorative stonework surrounding huge windows. Daniel beelined to the small cluster of intercoms, labeled in Japanese, and rang the one on the bottom left.
“Didn’t you say she’d had surgery?” Sam asked. “Is it safe for her to be living by herself?”
“She’s in middle school, of course it isn’t,” Jack said, frustrated with the whole matter.
No one came to the door.
They waited as the sun sank below the horizon and the few stars that braved the area’s light pollution showed up in the sky.
Daniel and Sam were both reading on their phones, and Jack spent an hour attempting to re-explain the game of I Spy to Teal’c
No one came in, no one came out.
And then, just as Jack was about to call the whole thing a wash, Daniel made a noise of alarm.
Jack turned to look at him, and there was Homura, still in her school uniform, with her gun to Daniel’s head. She stood behind him, on tiptoe atop one of the columns, and had pushed him off of the stairs so he stood on the sidewalk. Even so, she was still straining a bit to keep the gun level with his temple. It lent the whole scene an undertone of absurdity.
But still, there was a gun to his friend’s head, and Jack didn’t generally take kindly to that. And in addition….
“That is my gun!” he accused.
“Yes, and I’m holding it to your friend’s head,” Homura said, tone flat.
“What do you want?” Daniel asked.
“Leave,” Homura said. “Get out of Mitakihara and stop bothering me.”
“I’m sorry, you’re threatening a US army officer with a gun and you think you’re gonna get off scott free?” Jack asked.
“He’s not an officer,” Homura said. “He’s a civilian consultant.”
“How do you know that?” Sam demanded.
“Your records really aren’t as secure as you’d like to think,” Homura said.
“Wait, you read our files?” Jack asked. “Like, everything in them?”
“Yes,” Homura said. “I’m curious, are the bits about aliens actually real, or are they some sort of code?”
“Uh, code, definitely,” Sam said.
Homura’s frown deepened and Jack knew they’d been found out.
“If the files are right, you’re not human,” Homura said, turning to Teal’c. “Are you familiar with a group of beings that call themselves Incubators?”
“I cannot say that I am,” Teal’c replied. “But if you have come into contact with such a being while still on Earth, we would be most interested in hearing further details.”
The first hint of an expression finally poked through Homura’s flat expression, and it was desperation. “You won’t believe me.”
“You said you read our files,” Sam said. “Is it really that much stranger than all of that?”
“No,” Homura said. “But I don’t know if I can show you proof. They hide themselves from most people. And the other evidence is…you won’t take it seriously.”
“We will,” Sam promised. “Just let Daniel go and we promise to listen.”
Homura relaxed her grip on Daniel, then shoved him towards Jack, who caught him as he stumbled. She also lowered the gun.
Teal’c glanced at Jack. Before Jack could even nod, Homura was in front of Teal’c, with her gun pressed into his stomach.
“Don’t even try,” she said. “You can’t move fast enough.”
“How are you doing that?” Sam demanded. “Are you human?”
“Not anymore,” Homura said.
“You’re Ascended?” Daniel asked, turning to face her. “You don’t look like—”
“I’m not,” Homura said. “At least I don’t think so. I have a physical form. It just isn’t…normal.”
“Then you are disguising yourself,” Teal’c said.
Homura stepped back from Teal’c. “I guess you could say that.” She moved the gun to her left hand, then raised her right one, with the back of it facing them. “I’m the ring.”
The ring Jack had noticed yesterday glinted in the moonlight, the violet gem embedded in it seeming almost lit from within.
“So, you’re possessing the girl?” Daniel asked.
“No, this body’s always been mine,” Homura said. “I’m just not in it anymore. Like I said, I’m in the ring.”
“How did that happen?” Sam asked.
“I told you there were beings called Incubators,” Homura said. “They did this.”
“So, what, their big plan is to turn humans into jewelry?” Jack asked. “Weird plan, if you ask me.”
“As I understand it, their plan is energy harvesting,” Homura said. “They make the rings unstable on purpose.”
“And when they destabilize, it releases a lot of energy,” Daniel said. “Does that kill you?”
Homura barked out a laugh. “No,” she said. “But it does transform you. Something closer to those Ascended things, in terms of being pure energy, but it also transforms your consciousness. You don’t look or act human. So the Incubators can call you a monster.”
She took a breath. “And then they tell other people that they need to fight those monsters, so they need abilities like the ones they get from becoming a ring. Do you get where this is going?”
“So they use transformed rings to get more people to become rings,” Daniel said. “That’s horrific. And the transformed ones…”
“A transformed person, when dying, will leave behind remains that can temporarily stabilize a ring,” Homura said. “Also they’re usually mad with pain and anger so if they aren’t eliminated, they’ll kill normal people. So those of us who haven’t transformed yet hunt them.”
“Shit,” Jack said. “And no one’s noticed this?”
“Yes they have,” Sam said. “This is what’s happening to the missing girls, isn’t it?”
Homura nodded. “Some were transformed, others were killed in battles with those who’d been transformed. The Incubators target young girls; the energy they look for is based on emotions and they say ours is the strongest.”
“What you’re telling us now…they didn’t tell you it before they made you a ring, did they?” Daniel asked.
Homura shook her head. “Of course not,” she said. “I didn’t even know I was going to be a ring. I thought I’d just be a magical girl.”
“So, they represent what they’re doing as giving you magic,” Sam said. “That’s not uncommon, with this kind of thing.”
“No, that’s not quite it,” Daniel said. “It isn’t that they made you a girl with magic, it’s that they made you a mahou shoujo, right?”
Homura winced. “Yes, that’s it exactly. You’re familiar?”
“A friend’s daughter has been known to watch Sailor Moon on occasion,” Daniel said. He turned to Sam. “A magical girl is a specific trope within Japanese pop culture. It’s very popular in media for young girls. What these things are doing is pretty much the same as telling young kids in the US that they can make them Superman.”
Jack swore. He remembered Charlie’s superhero phase vividly, for all that it hurt to recall. If someone had shown up claiming to be able to make him a superhero….
“Do you know how long they’ve been active on this planet?” Sam asked.
Homura blinked, seeming surprised. “I’ve been trying to find out. They’ve alluded to being present for much of human history, but I suspect their recruitment tactics have changed over time.”
“Do you think the Goa’uld knew about them?” Jack asked Sam.
“Jolinar didn’t,” Sam said.
“What do they look like?” Daniel asked. “Maybe something I’ve read has referenced them.”
“They’re a hive mind,” Homura said. “I don’t know if the appearance they’ve taken with me is what they really look like.”
“What do they look like to you?” Daniel pressed.
“A white cat with long things that look like rabbit ears directly under their actual ears,” Homura said. “They have a red fur pattern on their back that seems to function as a secondary mouth for the remnants of their victims, but they can eat with their normal mouths, too.”
“So, a mascot animal,” Daniel said. “Like those keychains we saw at the airport.”
“This is really creepy,” Jack said. “They’re deliberately appealing to young girls.”
“Don’t you want proof?” Homura asked.
“Well, eventually yes, but—” Daniel started.
“No one believes me without proof,” Homura continued. “Even the other magical girls…”
“They don’t believe you when you tell them?” Daniel asked.
“No,” Homura said. “Tomoe always reacts badly. Sayaka ignores me. Even Madoka—”
“We heard about Tomoe and Miki from the police,” Jack said. “Who’s Madoka?”
“The Incubator is targeting her,” Homura said. “She hasn’t…it calls what it does to turn you into a ring contracting, and she hasn’t let it, not yet.”
“But she is considering it,” Teal’c filled in.
“Have you told her parents?” Sam asked.
“Sure, I’ll just walk up to her dad and tell him about the aliens he can’t see going after his daughter,” Homura said, rolling her eyes.
“Why is it called a contract?” Daniel asked. “That makes it sound like an exchange.”
“It is,” Homura said miserably. “The Incubator says it will grant you a wish if you let it make you a ring. It usually does grant the wish, but it never turns out well.”
“What kind of wishes?” Sam asked, curiously. “Does it have limits?”
“Some,” Homura said. “It can’t or won’t resurrect people.”
“What did you wish for?” Jack asked.
Homura glared at him, and Daniel quickly stepped in. “I think that’s a personal thing, Jack.”
“Well, okay, what about Miki, or Tomoe?” Sam asked.
“Miki wanted to heal a hand injury that was preventing her crush from playing the violin,” Homura said. “He was healed, but he started ignoring Sayaka after he got out of the hospital and her bitterness about how much she’d given up for him made her transform faster.”
“It’s emotional energy,” Daniel said. “So negative emotions can destabilize you, too?”
“Yes,” Homura said. “Most of the people who transform are ones who either fall into despair or overextend their magic.”
“But not everyone transforms?” Sam asked.
“No,” Homura said. “Some of us get killed by the transformed ones—we call them witches—before they can.”
“And everyone else?” Sam pressed.
“That is everyone,” Homura snapped. “Once you become a magical girl, either you’re killed by a witch or you become a witch yourself. There aren’t any exceptions.”
“Yeah, this definitely has to go to Stargate Command,” Jack said.
“What will you even do?” Homura asked. “You can’t kill the Incubators. If you shoot one, another will take its place. Believe me, I’ve tried.”
“Is that what you stole my gun for?” Jack asked. “I might almost approve.”
“No, your gun is for Walpurgisnact,” Homura said.
“The festival?” Daniel asked, confused. “I know you went to Catholic school, but I wasn’t aware that observance was popular in Japan.” He paused. “In Bavaria, they call it Hexennacht, Witch’s Night. That’s an odd festival to celebrate if you call the transformed girls ‘witches.’”
“Walpurgisnacht is a witch. Many of them, all merged together. It’s huge, beyond any other witch I’ve seen. That typhoon that’s supposed to hit Japan soon? It’s her.”
“And you’re planning to fight it?” Jack asked.
“If I don’t, Madoka will contract so she can,” Homura said. “And I can’t let that happen.”
Jack glanced at Sam. They were both familiar with the practice of dealing with trauma by fixating on someone in similar circumstances to your own past ones. It had never ended well for anyone in SG-1 and Jack suspected it would end even more poorly for Homura.
Then again, if she was telling the truth and having a breakdown would really turn her into a senseless, malevolent being of pure energy, Jack could see why she was using anything she could to stay afloat.
“Tell us about this Walpurgisnacht,” Sam said. “We might be able to scramble some troops to help you out, but we need details.”
“I don’t even know if they’ll be able to see her!” Homura snapped.
“You’ll have to help us,” Daniel said. “But if she’s an energy being, we have equipment that should be able to let us sense her. This isn’t the first time we’ve gone up against an enemy we can’t see.”
“You’re certain,” Homura said.
“Yes,” Daniel replied. “We can help.”
Homura sighed, and then finally, finally handed Jack his gun.
“You can have this back, for now,” she said. “But if you’re really serious about helping me, I’ll need a rocket launcher. Ideally, several of them.”
“So shooting at it works?”
“It works when I do it, but I don’t know if a normal person’s bullets would be as effective,” Homura said.
“You do use regular bullets, though,” Jack said.
“Yes, but I still use magic on them,” she replied. “Not a lot, but enough that it might make a difference.”
“We’ll have to study that,” Sam said. “We’ll need to study a lot of things.”
“I’m not letting you experiment on me,” Homura said.
“We won’t,” Sam said. “But we might need to study your ammunition.”
“That’s acceptable,” Homura said, and then, suddenly, her clothes changed.
It still looked like a Japanese school uniform, complete with a pleated skirt and a bow at Homura’s neck. But it was a dusty purple instead of creamy yellow, and there were even more ribbons than her previous outfit. Jack’s eyes were most drawn to the buckler fastened to her sleeve and decorated with swirling curves. Homura reached behind it, farther than should’ve been possible without her hand coming out of the other side. After a few seconds of what looked like rummaging, she pulled out a case of ammunition.
Jack’s eyes narrowed. “Why does that say ‘Property of U.S. Army’ on it?”
“Please,” Homura said. “You think you’re the first soldier I’ve stolen from?”
This was going to get so political so fast. Jack hated it already. But even if she was ridiculously mean, he was not about to let a little girl be used for some alien’s energy harvesting scheme. Not without a heck of a fight.
He glanced at Sam, who winced a bit, but nodded.
“Right,” he said. “We’re probably gonna have to get you some lawyers after this. But let’s focus on Walaburganight first.”
“Walpurgisnacht,” Homura said icily. “I’ve got more information on her in my apartment. Please come with me.”
Jack gestured to the others, and they followed the girl into her apartment building.
Someday, maybe, they’d have a normal diplomatic trip. Today wasn’t going to be that day, though.
At least this time, it wasn’t Jack’s own fault.