An actress in our midst! DELETED chapter 19 - Woman!

A/N:

Here's something different. See, with the way I write, sometimes I take the story in a certain direction before realizing that it wouldn't work, backtracking, and having to delete entire chapters that would no longer work.

Here's a chapter I had to delete some time ago because it no longer fit, but I found it too fun to never share it with the world.

A would-be chapter 19 that isn't canon anymore. Enjoy!

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“So… what do you think this is about?” Erika asked as everyone got seated.

“Beats me,” Sarah replied with a shrug.

“I… might have an idea. I hope I’m wrong though,” Nicole said.

The other two glanced at her but didn’t say anything.

A moment later, their fourth member, and the current leader of the magical girls, entered the room, carrying a tray of cups and cookies.

In her civilian persona, she didn’t look all that different from a regular university student. No sparkling blue dress and hair, just boring old brown hair, sweatpants and a white tee. She also wore glasses even though transforming would temporarily fix her eyesight.

She distributed the cups to everyone and filled them with tea. “Help yourselves,” she said with an almost motherly smile.

“Thanks,” Erika said whilst picking up a cookie and biting on it. “So what is this about Iris? I hope nothing bad…?”

Iris frowned and sat down on her own chair. “Nothing bad yet… but probably soon.”

The three exchanged a worried glance.

“It’s summer,” she stated. “And that means I should be at my weakest, which… I am. But that’s not all. You might have not noticed, but I’ve been getting weaker and weaker every year. I’m losing my powers.”

That statement made everyone forget about cookies and tea. Losing her powers? What did that mean?

“From how things are going, I’m either going to lose them next year if I’m lucky. But it’s looking like this year might be my last as a magical girl.”

“What?!” Erika stood up with a shout.

“No way! That’s terrible! What do we do?!” Sarah yelled.

“Now, calm down,” Iris raised her palms in a placating manner. “This is completely normal, actually.”

“Normal…? How is losing your powers normal…?”

“Yes…” Iris sighed. “You see… I’m getting too old.”

“Hey, what’s up with that? My grandpa would beat you up for saying that you are old!” Sarah tried to joke despite the serious situation.

Iris chuckled. “That’s not what I meant. See, we are magical girls, right?”

A round of nods.

“Then it only makes sense that we should be girls.” Iris pointed at herself. “Me? I’m gonna graduate from university next year and then I’ll be looking for a job. I’m gonna be an adult. A woman and not a girl. Get me?”

“I… guess…? What’s up with this technicality?” Sarah frowned.

“It is what it is.” Iris shrugged, a sad smile on her face.

“But… what are we going to do without you?” Erika asked, concerned.

“Well…” Iris glanced at Erika. “Firstly, since I’ll be retiring, someone else should be the leader.” She nodded to herself. “And I think Erika would be the best.”

“Eh, what? Me?” Erika pointed to herself whilst glancing at her teammates.

“I think that would fit,” Nicole confirmed.

“Yeah, you totally have some leader vibes,” Sarah added before turning back to Iris. “But you still didn’t answer! Are we just going to be one member short now?”

“No, of course not!” Iris assured them. “Just like when the old Pretty Flame, Spark, and Bloom retired, and I’d recruited you three, we’re gonna have to find a replacement for me.”

“A replacement… I don’t like that,” Sarah murmured. “It’s like what the demon lord does with his generals…”

Iris gave her a wry smile. “It can’t be helped. Missing a member would be a huge disadvantage, wouldn’t it?”

“Well… yeah. It’s just… too sudden, you know?” Erika said whilst hugging herself. “I’ve always looked up to you… I didn’t think you would ever retire… But I guess it makes sense.”

Iris smiled, this time trying to seem more hopeful. “If I was an inspiration for you, imagine how many girls you have inspired! I’m willing to bet there are hundreds of young girls dreaming of being a magical girl, all looking up to you, Erika.”

“Err…” Erika looked to the side, feeling just a tad embarrassed.

“I’m sure we wouldn’t have to look too far to find my successor.”

“Hmm…” Nicole hummed while locking her eyes with Iris.

“Something wrong…?”

“I’ve been thinking… You’re right that your powers have been waning lately… but actually, I think that was only in the last month or so. Not years back like you said.”

For some reason, that caught Iris off guard. “Um, well you might have not noticed it, but it’s true…”

“Hmm…” Nicole kept staring at her teammate before something seemingly clicked in her head. “Oooh… I get it…” She nodded to herself.

“Uhm… You get it? What do you get?” Erika dared to ask.

“Well…” Nicole looked at Iris. “You finally got yourself a boyfriend a month or two back, right? I remember you bragging about it.”

“Uh, y-yeah? What about it…?” Iris now seemed nervous for some reason.

“I see!” Nicole gave her a sweet smile. “So I was right! Now it all makes sense!”

“Uh…”

“See what? What are you talking about?” Sarah looked between Iris and Nicole.

“Well, don’t you get it? She said it herself! Iris is a woman now and not a girl anymore,” Nicole spelled it out.

…

It took a few seconds for the other two to realize what she was trying to say.

“Oh…” Erika involuntarily let out.

Iris suddenly found the wall to the side to be very interesting. Her face’s color decided to imitate Erika’s hair as well.

“Oh! Ah, er… congrats?” Erika fumbled her words. “I-I mean…”

“What?! You chose some random guy over our magical girl team?! How dare you!” Sarah blurted out.

“It just kinda happened, okay?!” Iris tried to deflect.

“How does something like that just kinda happen?! Don’t you need to like p-p-prepare or something…?!” Sarah kept shouting, getting red-faced herself.

“We just got a little drunk! And then we… Can we please stop talking about this?!” Iris seemed to be at her wit’s end.

Nicole giggled at the mayhem she had caused. “Yeah, what’s done is done. We should try to figure out who to invite to be our new member instead.”

“Yeah, you’re right…” Erika agreed, still trying to not look at Iris.

“I suppose…” Sarah harrumphed. “But who? Nobody really comes to mind…”

Iris cleared her throat and did her best to regain some composure before speaking, “It’s… not actually that urgent to find someone. This was just a heads up to keep an eye out.”

“Right…” Erika said.

“Yeah…” Sarah agreed.

Nicole didn’t say anything for a moment, seemed to be lost in thought, before she opened her mouth and said something nobody was expecting.

“What about Jessica?”