I had a restless night, waking up often; seems that much as I used to like sleeping on my stomach, there was no way in hell that was possible now. I couldn't even rely on my own dreams or the mindless bliss of unconsciousness to distract me from the level of suck that my life had become, or the knowledge that it was all my fault. I really wanted to blame the stupid talking rat-rabbit thing, and some of the fault most definitely was his, but it would be a cop-out to lay the entire blame at his feet.

I wouldn't be letting him off the hook, however, especially since he was jumping right on my chest to wake me up from a sound sleep that I'd had to fight to get into.

I bucked him off and threw a pillow at his head, missing.

“What do you want, you mutant rodent?”

“It's time to train.”

I'd spent several hours walking to this new location yesterday, which was a huge waste of time; if Hoshiko had told me how far away it actually was, I'd have called a cab. The new place to live had turned out to be an old Buddhist temple outside of town and off a highway, set back in a wooded mountain which did not fit in this area at all. I mean, there weren't been any Chinese here ever, let alone monks. No railroad had been through here, so who built the temple?

While I was still trying to wrap my mind around that little bit of insanity, Hoshiko took me behind the temple, to the traditional Japanese manor house, all screens, wood, and paper doors.

O.K., no way had I lived here this long, and missed this. It looked like Asian culture threw up it's past, right outside of college town U.S.A. How was this here, and not a tourist attraction?

In all the time, I was here I'd never even heard about this being here, and I could have swore this mountain wasn't here yesterday. I had to ask.

“Hoshiko, did you magic up an entire temple and house?”

He had twitched his nose before replying.

“Of course not, that would be ridiculous.”

I smelled the bull-crap; it was particularly pungent.

“Right, whatever. So how did this place come to be, exactly?”

“It was built, of course.”

I wanted to throw the insufferable bastard; with a herculean effort I had resisted. I did however place him gently on the ground; he could walk on his own the rest of the way. That and he was in kicking range, at least until he wised up. I didn't normally consider actions that would make PETA mad at me, but I don't think PETA ever had to deal with smug talking animals before.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning the temple; it had plenty of rooms in the back and had to be better insulated than the house out back. At the very least, it was better sound insulated. A quick check had revealed a modern sink with running water in the modern kitchen, electricity and lights, a few modern bathrooms and a public shower. Modern was relative I supposed; the wiring was all large cables and old fixtures that reminded me of old world war 2 films, while the refrigerator, washer, and dryer all seemed to be recent vintage. I could fit myself into all three if I wanted, they were that big. It all worked.

Of course I had taken the largest room for myself; the head monks room, or whatever. Not only was it the largest, but it had it's own bathroom and shower, as well as large windows. It also had the thickest walls. Evidently the vow of poverty was not equal, or something.

Then, because I was an idiot, and I couldn't really stand all the flaked plaster coming from the walls and carpet of dust on the floors, I pulled out my meager cleaning supplies and got to work; starting with my chosen room and working out. The place was huge, and I'd run out of my own stuff after an hour.

When I'd come back to my room and Hoshiko to ask him to magic up some cleaning supplies, I'd found him on my phone. He had his ear pressed to it, and was nodding. How had he even dialed?

“Yes, that's right. The address is number one ridge road. Yes, thank you; see you shortly.”

He turned to me while curling onto my backpack.

“Please, continue cleaning.”

How far could I punt him, I wondered. But no, if I aimed for the window, I'd break it, and I'd just cleaned it an hour ago.

“Why are you using my phone, exactly?”

“I was forced to; the old telephone lines to this monastery were cut by a natural disaster decades ago, and never replaced.”

I stomped over.

“Why. Were. You. Using. My phone?”

“In order to order the furniture and groceries you would need in order to live here in comfort. One of us had to, and you were occupied. Now the deliveries are on their way. So why have you stopped cleaning? If your efforts slow much more, the facility will not be properly prepared.”

I had to work hard for patience. Calm. The opposite of murder. I was fairly sure he hadn't meant to imply I was a glorified maid.

“Properly prepared for what, Hoshiko?”

He had looked at me as if I were insane.

“Why, the arrival of all your sisters of course. Others like you, pledged to fight the coming evil. You are among the first, but are not among the last. And this facility has plenty of room. You will of course, benefit from the example and socialization of your peers, as they will benefit from your own example.”

O.K. I didn't think I was the only one, wasn't even sure I was among the first, though that was good to hear confirmed, but living with a bunch of magical girls, as one myself? I mean, even rooming with normal girls would be dicey; what if they figured out I wasn't a real girl somehow, or something?

“I'm out of cleaning supplies. Literally everything.”

Hoshiko paused and placed a paw to his face in a thinking gesture.

“Ah. Well, in that case I believe the closet next to the shower, the one I found the broom and dustpan in, has some bleach and other cleansers.”

It did, which was a good thing, because I wasn't walking back to town in order to buy a bunch of cleaning crap I didn't really have money for; I had a sneaking suspicion that it'd be better if I didn't spend anything until I saw just what Hoshiko had ordered.

So yesterday was a dazed frenzy of activity and bleach, broken only by directing the hired movers to drop their various loads in the proper places, and finally capped by me doing something really dumb, and polishing the extra large bronze statue of Buddha in the main hall. I still wasn't done cleaning, but it was livable now. The mold and dust were all banished back to their respective places, and the air was clean.

The place showed some signs of it's age, but showed no sign at all of disrepair; it was weird. It was as if while dirt had had free reign over the place, decay had never been allowed it's normal hold.

I rolled out of bed, introspection over. I had questions of course, I already felt I'd always have questions from here on out, but with Hoshiko finally wanting to actually train me in the use of the one really cool part of this entire deal, it was best to strike while the iron was hot. But not too hot.

“Time for breakfast you mean, then training.”

Hoshiko huffed and conceded as his little stomach growled loud enough for both of us to hear.

The kitchen had been fully stocked thanks to a grocery store that delivered, and I handed Hoshiko a carrot while I dragged out some fruit loops. I still found it a bit odd that Hoshiko knew what my favorite foods were, cereal included, (downright creepy actually; just how long had he been watching me?) but such concerns were far down the list at the moment.

Hoshiko stared at the carrot, then at me, and I knew he wanted to protest, but a second later he just shrugged and started nibbling. He no doubt had expected me to cook some crazy large continental breakfast thing; I was all too happy to disappoint him there.

As soon as I was done, before I could even put the bowl in the sink, Hoshiko was tugging on my leg.

“Come on, we have to train now, you must be ready.”

“Alright, alright, I'm coming.”

Little mutant had quite the grip.

He led me outside and into the yard behind the monastery; it was overgrown of course, but teeming with life. Mostly colorful flowers and sweet smelling plants; I'm sure I'd be in at least minor awe if I knew anything at all about plants, but the only ones I recognized were the rosebushes. Well those and the dandelions.

For all the plant life, nothing snagged my clothes or tried to hitch a ride as I walked the overgrown path behind my pushy companion. He led me to a clearing filled with tall grass and little else and stopped; evidently we were going to engage in some exotic gardening. Hoshiko turned to me and I gave him my full attention.

“Alright, first lesson. To properly utilize your power, you must think cold.”

His nose twitched as he fell silent. My nose twitched as I waited. Hoshiko shifted then looked up at me expectantly. What the hell? This was my in depth instruction?

“Think cold? That's it? That's all I get?”

I wasn't thinking cold thoughts at the moment. Cold blooded, perhaps, but not cold specifically. Hoshiko must have read my mind, because he was backpedaling quickly and looking around for an exit. I wasn't about to point out that it' be hard to track him through the grass if he vanished into it.

“Please, just try it Isolde. Calm down, take a deep breath, and think of cold.”

I tried. Closing my eyes, I pictured glaciers; giant fields of ice swept with bitter winds. Gently falling snow and terrifying sleet. The crisp tingle of snow on the tongue and the pin and needle numbness of frostbite. And just that easily a mental switch threw itself within me.

I memorized where that switch was and how it felt to be on as I opened my eyes to see snow falling despite the summer heat. A quick look down revealed that yes, Hoshiko was looking very smug. A thought and I could feel the moisture suck itself from the air and form the icicle I had desired. It floated there in mid-air, tugged left and then right by my mind. I had complete control over it.

I sent it zipping around while thinking. Telekinesis of ice? That was the only way I could explain what was going on; I could feel the frozen water around me, and control where it went. And for that matter, sure there was plenty of moisture in a given stretch of air, but pulling it all together in just a little icicle should actually affect the local humidity. Taking deep breaths revealed no noticeable change in air quality that way. So how far could I push it?

Hoshiko watched silently while I summoned another dozen icicles. With a thought I hardened them and sent them arrowing into the ground in a smiley face pattern. They didn't shatter, and the air still didn't feel any different; so where was all the water actually coming from? I was sure some of it was from the air because I could feel it as it froze, but all of it couldn't be.

How far could I take it?

Hoshiko's gaze was unsettling as I willed even more ice into existence, ending up with a veritable forest of sunlight refracting shards. I knew how many I had made... one hundred and twenty. Counting the dozen I still had control of, the total was one hundred and thirty-two. And yet I only felt the barest hint of strain. Taking a breath with the ice all around me revealed that the air was slightly less humid, taking on that crisp quality it often does during cold winter days. My breath was also frosting in front of me.

I made the ice wizz around, amusing myself by cutting the grass with it for awhile. Wouldn't do to have Hoshiko have more potential escape routes, after all. After a minute of that I got bored of it and let the ice dissipate. The air did not become more humid as the moisture bled off into the air, though the temperature rebounded immediately; I stopped being able to see my breath. Another thought stopped the snow as I looked to Hoshiko, who was still silent. I couldn't resist a little verbal needle.

“Well?”

“You took to your power surprisingly quickly; well done. You also took to the simple attack aspects of your power surprisingly quickly as well. Perhaps some training in defense is in order?”

Another thought, and shields of ice started forming, varying in size and thickness. The larger ones took longer of course, though the speed with which I could form any of them rivaled a gunfighter on the draw in those old westerns; a full body shield so thick I couldn't see through it at all took just under a second, and the rest were faster.

But I wasn't limited to that.

Another thought and blinding snow and hail poured down, obscuring all vision completely. I couldn't even hear anything over the howling wind and crashing ice; so that worked as a form of protection easily. I cut that off and refocused, and the ice slid across the ground with the same speed of my shields forming and coated things at my direction; I was tempted to coat Hoshiko, but knowing my luck it'd actually hurt him.

Another thought. I bent and picked up some leftover hail. It felt like normal ice, but wasn't melting in my hand. Walking across the spread ice was easy for me too; I didn't slip at all, unless I wanted to. Then I could slide all over as if I were skating, and stop at will. There was certainly a telekinetic aspect to all this.

Another thought, and I made it as cold as I could by surrounding myself with a box made of layers of ice. Not five minutes later Hoshiko was shivering, but I was not. I could feel the cold, but it didn't seem to affect me. I melted all the ice I'd made with a thought, and the humidity returned to normal once again.

A shame really, I liked that crisp air feeling.

So I could make structures out of ice, quickly and easily, as well as just shields. That and cold didn't seem to affect me at all; at the very least, I didn't feel it. I suppose the cold could still hurt me from exposure, even if I didn't feel it.

“Hoshi.”

He didn't say anything about the nickname; he was still shivering a bit.

“Yes, Isolde?”

Right, why would I feel bad about giving this talking rat a nickname? He had changed mine without asking.

“I don't seem to feel the cold as I used to, or as you do; is that intentional?”

“Of course it is Isolde; you would be much less effective at your tasks should your own power cause you such problems as others experience. As such, while you can still feel and be aware of colder temperatures, you can no longer suffer tissue damage from such, though attacks based in cold such as your own might still affect you in other ways.”

Such as blunt force trauma, I'd assume.

“Are there others with my powers?”

He scrunched his nose but didn't hesitate.

“Not at present, but it is a future possibility.”

Good to know.

“Is there anything else you can think of for me to train? Anything else you'd like to see me try?”

Hoshi adopted his thinker pose.

“Not at present. Your imagination currently exceeds my expectation.”

Was that... a compliment? Weird, I think it was.

“Alright. Then I guess we finish cleaning. You going to help today?”

Hoshi crinkled his nose again, then nodded.

“Of course. I shall help you mop.”

He took the lead, while I surveyed the destruction I had wrought. It wasn't that bad; all I'd managed to mess up was the grass, and by messing up the grass I meant cutting it in a haphazard fashion. Well, without a lawn mower, it was probably the best I could do.

I suppressed the desire to coat my surroundings in ice again, just for the beauty of it. I wonder if the power messed with my mind somehow? I mean I'd always liked winter before, but wanting to coat random surroundings in ice seemed a bit much. I shoved those thoughts down deep.

Instead I went back to the stellar and not mind numbing at all work of mopping. There was still so much of this old monastery to dust and mop, and I doubted I'd ever be able to get the pigeons and doves out of it entirely. Any other skittering ground critter was getting war to the knife; a pigeon would be stopped by a door, and wouldn't crawl into bed with me in any case.

The mop that I made of ice and kept renewing out of water mixed with bleach made the process easier at least; it was slightly harder to freeze the bleach in the water, and I could manage it. It also kept me from having to wring out the old mop I'd found yesterday. Once everything was frozen, it was easy to just melt the 'mop head' a little at a time to clean the floor. The implications of being able to freeze liquids other than water were staggering... and frightening.

For more... solid things on the floor, a coat of ice that stretched and contracted, then rolled along ahead of me removed all particulate matter. While I mopped I checked the new beds and desks and other furniture the movers had brought directly into the old monk cells. They weren't much, being far less nice than what Hoshi had ended up ordering for me, but were still sturdy and serviceable. We had outfitted a full twenty cells that way in addition to my own squatted room. I didn't like those implications.

He had even ordered replacements, which were being stored in what could only have been one of those old airy medical wings made famous in the fifties. I had not liked the implications of that either; though I could see why. My powers were easily destructive, and not everyone out there had my self control.

Well, I hadn't murdered Hoshi yet, so I was going to go with my control being better than average, at least. If any of the other recruits to this insanity wanted to treat their own animal companion and helper in ways PETA wouldn't approve of, well, as long as they didn't bring the place down around all our heads I might overlook it.

For all I know, I might have gotten the only annoying one.

A trip to the kitchen for lunch found the little lazy bum already there, nibbling on his carrots. I washed my hands and made a sandwich. Both the fridge and pantry were fully stocked, but if there were many more people showing up here, the food likely wouldn't last long.

“Hoshi, do you know how many people we are looking at showing up here? And when?”

I refused to call them magical girls, at least out loud. He shook his head, sending his ears swinging.

“I do not. I expect that many may eventually find us, though there may be as many as several hundred or even a few thousand involved before the matter is decided. As for when the first may find us, again I do not know, though I suspect we have at most a week to prepare for the first.”

Really, that many involved? This sort of thing would be hard to keep secret.

“Have you made your decision on the other property yet?”

“Huh?”

“The house behind this monastery. Have you decided when you will clean and prepare it?”

Wow, he was on crack or something.

“Yeah, I was thinking never. That place is more trouble than it's worth; the monastery is big enough to clean and maintain, and that house is going to be cold when winter hits.”

That kind of place built here was just stupid; there was no way it could be a proper house, being made of paper and flimsy wood like it was. Hoshi just stared at me. I found myself sighing.

“Look, if we need the room it's there. If we don't than it's a waste of time to mess with it.”

“I suppose that is acceptable.”

There was a knock at the door. I stared at Hoshi... and he stared back. I went to answer it with a sigh; and he followed, wonder of wonders.

“What else did you order?”

I couldn't think of anything, we had already dealt with all the movers setting up furniture in the main hall while ogling me as much as possible. We had everything we needed already, didn't we?

“I believe our window to the outside world is all that is left.”

What did that mean?

Another 3 knocks sounded before I managed to make it to the door; the monastery was a big place. Fortunately I had countered that with a painstakingly hand written sign advising any callers that I could be awhile answering the door, so the caller was still present.

Turned out Hoshi meant the cable guy. Well technically in this case, the satellite dish guy since the monastery was too far outside of town to have old fashioned cable. He was young, and taller than I was, and a bit rugged looking, like an outdoors-man or a park ranger or something. He looked me up and down while matching my frosty smile with his own genuine one.

“Hello miss. Got an order here to install television and internet to the property for a miss Geru?”

I could see Hoshi's miniscule nod from the corner of my eye, so I gave the guy a nod of my own.

“I'm miss Geru. Come in, please.”

He looked around as we entered and whistled.

“Large place. Hopefully you don't need the entire place wired?”

I snorted. I didn't really need any of it, though television might be nice to watch again.

“Of course not. I'll show you.”

He ended up hooking up a grand total of twenty rooms and the common room for wired television access, as well as making a sort of miniature WiFi hotspot. I had only wanted to have two rooms hooked up, but with more people due to show, I didn't want to keep calling this guy back. All done in the basement of course, which I had yet to touch and had very few working lights. It took him most of the day in that dark pit, something I didn't begrudge him in the slightest. He didn't seem to mind, packing up with a wave and a ready grin just as the sun began to set, cobwebs festooning him like a movie archeologist. I couldn't suppress the sigh as he left; it was hard to try and act normal now.

We actually managed to finish cleaning all the more useful and used areas of the monastery by the time night fell. The ironic thing was the lights were the last thing I tackled, making ramps of ice that I could climb with ease in order to replace the old bulbs in fixtures inset in the high ceilings; at least those we had replacements for. Old bulbs were old bulbs, after all. I was very careful not to touch the wiring.

Work done for the day, I locked the doors, shut and locked the windows, (oddly enough while the locks were hard to turn, they did work well) and shut off the lights everywhere but my chosen chambers. Once there I contemplated my old barely high definition television before sighing and curling around a good book in my new bed. It was more comfortable than my old one, but I wasn't about to tell Hoshi that.