glitchdoka episode 1

A white-checkered hall. The smell of smoke. It burnt Dani's lungs as she ran up the stairs, running towards something - or away from something - she wasn't sure what. She didn't know anything about this place. She saw an exit sign and ran towards it.

The door gave way to a rooftop plaza. Dani stumbled out and stared at a brown-haired girl, fighting for her life.

"What... why...?!"

A young woman stepped up behind her, dressed in pink.

"We can't do anything about it, meow. She's determined to do this alone, even though she can't handle it."

The brown-haired girl slammed into a building. Dani sobbed.

"No, I'm not gonna let her do this alone!"

The pink-clothed girl turned to her. Her face had a curious expression, an unchanging smile. "Do you think she's given up? She's fighting for you, meow. But as soon as she gives up..."

"She can't do this alone! I have to help her..!"

"All you have to do is change everything! The grief, the destruction, they're only inevitable until you do something. You've got the power to do that."

"Can I really do it? Can I save her? Can I save everyone?"

"Of course, meow. Make a contract with me and become a magical girl!"


Dani awoke with a gasp. She sat up in her bed, disturbing Krypto from his sleep.

"What a strange dream..!"

She couldn't remember everything about it, but she distinctly remembered the end. It had been a strange, ominous dream. She didn't want to think about it as she picked herself up and began getting ready for school.

Her sister still wasn't up. Dani went to her and shook her shoulder lightly.

"Sis? Hey, sis! It's time to wake up!"

Her sister groaned and yanked her blankets over her head, mumbling something about how Dani should really go away.

"Nope!" Dani replied, cheerfully. "It's time to get up!"

"Alright, okay," her sister said, pulling herself out of bed.

The two of them got ready together, her sister asking about her days at school. Her advice was perhaps less than sound - why would you burn up your enemies in a fiery exchange of death? - but Dani treasured these moments when her sister actually talked to her.

She ran off to school soon afterwards, meeting up with her friend Sora.

"My sis and I had a great conversation this morning!", she said, gleeful.

"Aw yeah?" Sora grinned. "That's awesome. What'd she say?"

"She said that if anyone was such a coward as to send me a love letter, I should put them in a death trap just to show them what passive-aggressive really means."

"Really? Damn. Your sis sure is something."

Dani didn't notice the doubt in Sora's voice. "She sure is!"

"So how about it? You got any love letters lately?"

"No..." Dani sighed. "I think it'd be nice to get one - just once."

"Oho! You want to be popular?" Sora grinned, tapping a finger against his chest. "Then you should totally look to me for a new outfit!"

"Oh, I couldn't! I'd never wear them as well as you!"

"You flatterer!"

"How about you marry me instead of getting popular with all the other boys, huh?"

"Sora! You can't just say things like that!" They laughed. Their friendship was strong enough to let jokes like that pass.

The two of them messed around until they got to class. Their teacher was typically odd, but Dani was able to ignore her. Nothing interesting happened... until she introduced the new student.

"Everyone, please welcome Kris Randall to the class!"

"Yeah, nice to meet you all." The girl looked stern. Disapproving.

And she was the brown-haired girl from Dani's dreams.

Dani shifted uncomfortably in her seat as Kris stepped to her seat. Everything went normally until lunchtime, when Dani noticed her being swamped by curious students.

"Your hair's lovely!"

"What school did you come from?"

"Do you like anyone here?"

Sora and Dani watched from another table. "Geez," Sora said, "do you know this chick? She's been staring at you this whole time."

"I don't know her yet!" Dani replied, but there was uncertainty in her chipper voice.

Suddenly, Kris rose and began walking towards the pair. She stopped in front of them, looking down at Dani. Her expression was grim.

"Dani Martin. You're the head of the class, aren't you?"

"Well... yeah! What can I do for you?"

"I need to go to the nurse's office. You're gonna take me."

Sora let them go as they began walking towards the nurse's office. Kris led them, and Dani followed. She tried to make small talk, but Kris answered her questions in a curt and unfriendly way.

Finally, as Dani made a comment about Kris's cool headband, the girl whirled to face her.

"Dani Martin."

"Why do you keep using my full name..? Dani's fine, you know!"

Kris grit her teeth and shook her head.

"I'm asking you now - don't be a fucking idiot. You love your friends, don't you?"

"More than anything!"

"So don't go doing dumb shit. Stay as the person you are. You're Dani Martin. That's all you need to be. Yeah?"

"Y...yeah."


Dani was hanging out with her friends in a food plaza. She described Kris's behavior to a disbelieving Sora.

"... and then she told me that I just needed to be myself!"

"Talk about weird! Geez, you sure do attract weird characters, Dani."

"Like you," another of her friends commented. Sora scoffed.

"Most certainly not like me! Anyway, you sure you've never met this chick before?"

"That's the weird thing..."

"Yeah?"

"... I have seen her before, but in a dream!"

"Whoa, now!" Sora raised a hand, palm-up. "You're seriously saying you saw her in a dream?"

"Yeah... is that weird?"

"Nah," another of her friends commented. "Maybe you've met her sometime before, and you just don't remember it consciously."

"Or maybe it's fate!" Sora's voice had a teasing tone to it.

"Well, there's only one thing to do." Dani slammed a fist into her open palm. "I'm gonna get to know her! I'm sure she's a great girl!"

Everyone laughed - goodnaturedly, of course. "It figures you'd do that."

"Say," Sora said, "wanna drop by the music store on the way back, Dani?"

"Something for that friend of yours?"

"Yeah!"

"Sure thing," Dani grinned.

They finished up with lunch, and headed to the record shop. Dani listened to a few smooth tracks as she waited for Sora to find the CD he wanted.

And suddenly, she heard the voice from her dreams.

"Dani, please..."

Dani turned, trying to place the sound.

"... please help me!"

The girl was concerned by now. She followed the source of the noise as well as she could, not noticing how Sora looked up to see her leave.

Dani stepped into a part of the mall which was being renovated. Her voice was uncertain as she called out.

"Hello...? Where are you?"

"I'm... I'm over here, meow..."

The voice seemed to be coming from behind a door. Dani pushed it open and went inside, her footsteps echoing on the cold ground. It was dark, and she couldn't see much.

She heard something rattling from the ceiling, and a girl fell to the ground in front of her. She was badly injured, her skin torn in many places, though she didn't seem to be bleeding.

Something followed the girl down - the transfer student, Kris. She landed in front of Dani, staring down at her as she cradled the injured girl in her arms.

"Put her down."

"No way, Kris! She's hurt!"

"And she's gonna hurt more by the time I'm through with her."

"What are you saying?!"

"This isn't your business. Step off."

"It is my business. She asked for my help!" Dani glared up at Kris. "And I'm not gonna let you beat up an innocent girl!"

"... innocent, huh." Kris turned her head and spat to the side.

They stood in silence for a moment, watching each other. That's when they heard a shout. Dani knew it was Sora's voice.

"Hey! What do you think you're doin'?!"

As Kris turned towards him, he threw out a smoke pellet, the type used in his family's circus acts. He went into the smoke and grabbed Dani's sleeve, pulling her out of the smoke and away from the scene.

Kris dismissed the smoke with a wave of her hand - but they were already gone.

Dani ran with the injured girl in her arms, and Sora ran with her.

"Who is that?!"

"I don't know, but she asked for my help!"

"Good enough for me," Sora said, drawing in hungry breaths as he ran.

The walls began to warp, the mall's distinct architecture replaced by something... else. Towers of earth stretched upwards into a fractal abyss. It was as if they'd walked into a nightmare.

"What the hell's going on?!", Sora said, stopping short. "Where are we?!"

"I don't know..." Dani took a step towards him as she saw things in the strange, flattened images of earthen towers. "But I don't think we're alone..!"

Shapes shifted in the darkness. Inky black crows moved forward from behind the towers, moved in to circle them. The two schoolchildren moved closer together, clearly terrified.

The crows opened their beaks, and from them came the laughter of young children. Darkness began to thread towards the pair as the crows chanted in a language they didn't understand.

There was a sound of chains breaking, and as those chains fell to the floor, a burst of blue light surrounded the pair.

They heard footsteps. Turning towards the sound, they both saw a boy in the uniform of their school walking towards them, holding a strange sphere.

"You're fecking lucky buggers, you know that? Looks like I was just in time."

He approached them, smiling, and looked to the girl in Dani's arms.

"And you saved Mila, too? Thanks. She's me good friend."

"She did something weird..."

"Don't worry about that. I'll explain it all later. For now, let me take care of this li'l problem."

He took his sphere, and a light emerged from it as he sprang into the air. He was bathed in blue light, his clothes shimmering and reforming into a fancy blue suit. Dani stared, unable to comprehend what she was seeing.

As they watched, the boy took out a loaded paintbrush and painted strokes in the air. The paint seemed to animate itself, the strands whipping out to attack the crows which they had been so afraid of. It was all over in a moment, and as the crows fell, the nightmare-world faded.

Soon, the mall was normal once again.

Kris looked down at them from above. The boy frowned at her.

"Get outta here."

"I've gotta deal with something first."

"You really don't. Get out of here before me paintfinger gets trigger happy."

"Is that a threat?"

"I remember you saying you didn't want to get into trouble if you didn't need to."

"... fuck you." Kris turned and walked away.

The group moved in the other direction, into one of the empty rooms of the mall. The boy held his sphere against Mila, and her wounds healed. She pushed herself into a sitting position.

"Ouch, meow..."

"Are you okay?" Dani was clearly concerned.

"I'm okay! Thank you for saving me!"

She turned to Dani and Sora, smiling. Her smile never seemed to shift or change, always wide-eyed and catlike. Even injured, she'd been smiling.

"My name is Mila Wright!"

"You..." Dani spoke up, uncertainly. "You said things to me in my mind, didn't you?"

"That's right, Dani! Thanks for helping her too, Sora. If you hadn't, who knows where I'd be, meow!"

Sora was surprised. "How do you know our names?"

"I want you to do something for me," Mila ignored his question.

"How can we help?" Dani asked.

"I want you to make contracts with me and become Puella Magi!"