The music starts up and the Idol's warbling morphs into the familiar screech as her spirit core surges and pushes out towards The Squat. The grumbling crowd of bums immediately quiets down and begins staring attentively at the Idol. The RAU troopers begin to fan out and move towards the crowd cautiously, gauging their reaction to the Idol's magic. The Idol has also grown far stronger compared to what I had observed from the her previous rehearsals with Trietel. Her spiritual field now easily swallows up the crowd in front of her and the waves of spirit energy possess much greater intensity.

"Has the Idol come into her power?" I ask The Voice.

The Voice rumbles, "Hardly. What you are seeing is a mere fragment of Heroine Majima's full potential. Once she reaches her full power, she would be capable of immobilizing all the inhabitants of The City without issue."

I whisper back, "That's way too overpowered. What use would the Idol have for such an ability?"

The Voice explains, "Each of the Heroines fulfill a function with regard to the Hero's ascension. Heroine von Amsterg represents raw power. Her spirit core has been tuned to maximize the effectiveness of damage dealing spells and her role is to assist the Hero in subduing the recalcitrant members of his family as well as the elites of the three great powers that may oppose the Hero's ascension. Heroine Naiberg has been designed as the Hero's protector. She has massive reserves of stamina and will eventually attain resilience to damage beyond the capability of any of the world's natives."

"And what is the Idol's function? Other than killing the Hero that is." I query.

"Heroine Majima is the Hero's social interface. There are many regular citizens in the von Amsterg territory who would object to the Hero's ascension due to his angelic heritage. Heroine Majima's main function is to placate them and eventually turn these people over to the Hero's side." The Voice replies.

"I witnessed some of the fight involving Hero and friends as well as that loli vampire at the manor the other night. Magic Police Girl is not as powerful as you describe." I rebut, "The Idol also got taken out pretty quickly by Trietel."

The Voice sighs, "An unfortunate side effect of a decision I had made during the design of the Hero and the Heroines. If the Hero and the Heroines came into their power too early in their lives, Fate would notice and eliminate them before the Hero and his companions were ready for such a conflict. To prevent that from happening, I had locked most of their powers away until certain preconditions were met."

"For the Hero," The Voice continues, "The condition was simply engaging in battle and challenging himself. As I had originally allowed the Hero to wield a modest amount of strength, I was confident that any conflict he got himself involved in would not be too serious and not result in his premature death. From that point, the Hero would begin to scale up until he fully unlocks all the enhancements I had provided him with."

"With regard to the Heroines, the condition I had set was that they had to come into contact with the Hero first. Once that happened, their powers would be gradually unlocked as a matter of course, keeping pace with the rate of the Hero's advancement. This allows all three Heroines to be consistently useful to the Hero, preventing any one of them from being sidelined. The specialization of the individual Heroines would also force the Hero to act in close cooperation with all of them, guiding him down the harem path that I had planned."

"The problem the Hero and the Heroines are experiencing now is due to Fate accelerating its schedule. The Hero, and by extension the Heroines, did not have enough time to unlock the full extent of their powers. As I cannot communicate directly with the Hero and the Heroines, I also cannot alter the settings that had been originally installed as part of their bodies."

I nod and ask, "Is the Hero stronger than the Heroines?"

"Overall? Yes." The Voice answers, "Though each of the Heroines are stronger in their area of specialization."

"Then how is the Idol supposed to whack the Hero? He is going to become stronger than her after all." I shoot back. That was the question I really wanted an answer to.

The Voice rasps, "You are looking at it right now. All the Heroines are unconsciously driven by the objectives I had planted in them and will take action to bring my plan to fruition. Heroine Majima, at her own initiative, has learned a form of magic that both synergizes well with her spirit core and can immobilize people without a fight. Guess how long the Hero will last once Heroine Majima has gotten her claws into him."

I shudder. Scary. Way too scary. The Hero is bearing witness to the method of his eventual murder and judging by his facial expression, is actually enjoying it. It goes to show that ignorance is truly bliss.

The Idol is well into her routine by now and is prancing up and down on stage, screeching all the way. She occasionally flashes coy glances at the Hero that gets him blushing furiously and awkwardly scratching the back of his head. The bum army is also getting really into the show, shouting and dancing in unison with the Idol, ignoring the RAU troopers that have been slowly drawing closer to them. It looks like the magic has done its thing.

The RAU troopers begin putting the bums in handcuffs and leading them to the lorries. The bums are far too distracted by the Idol's performance to bother with the fact that they are being arrested and allow themselves to be led away without putting up a fight. In this way, the troopers begin to gradually thin the crowd of bums and it is only a matter of time before the entire Squat is cleaned out. Things are not looking good. Anything that helps Nicky is something that hurts the Hero, and by extension me. I'm going to have to do something if the Hero continues to be too busy ogling the Idol.

"How much damage can the Idol safely take?" I ask The Voice.

"Plenty. I designed the Heroines to last." The Voice says, "What are you planning, Transmigrator?"

I begin prying a loose brick from the wall that I am hiding behind. I don't have access to any of my equipment with me now, so I'll just have to get creative with solutions. I activate the core and some of the bums nearby lethargically turn to look at me. Well, here goes nothing.

I pump spirit energy into my arm and pitch the brick straight at the Idol as she is in the middle of a dance move. The brick smacks her right in the face and she loses her balance, toppling onto the ground. The band immediately stops playing and the only sound heard is the Idol crying loudly as she recovers from the shock. With the spell broken, the bums immediately notice the RAU troopers trying to arrest them and rise to their feet with a roar of outrage.

The bums charge forward with their fists raised while the guys that had already been carted off to the lorries begin to attack the troopers that were watching over them. The Hero rushes towards the Idol and sweeps her up in a tight embrace, comforting her and escorting her to the back of the APCs. Wasn't this how the Hero and the Idol got acquainted with each other at first? He rescued her from a public event gone wrong if I recall correctly. Go grab those relationship points Hero. No need to thank me.

The RAU troopers among the bums are quickly overwhelmed and the bum horde begins raucously moving towards the APCs. A second group of troopers armed with riot shields and batons hastily assembles in formation and move to block the advancing crowd. The bums begin pelting the troopers with stones, bricks and whatever assorted garbage they can get their hands on. The APCs roar to life and trundle forward as the troopers hide behind their shields.

The turrets of the APCs swing towards the crowd and release geysers of water, driving the bums back. The troopers begin lobbing grenades over their shields and which release massive flashes of light as they explode with earsplitting noise. Chemically laced water and flash bangs. Looks like the police have decided to go in hard after their gambit using the Idol failed.

As the bum army falters disorientated, the troopers baton charge them and the mauling begins. The bums attempt to put up a fight, but it soon becomes clear that they are being cleared out of The Squat today, one way or the other. The APCs keep moving forward, corralling the bums and preventing them from escaping.

I shut off the core and retreat through the narrow side streets, leaving The Squat. Nothing more I can do here. If I stay any longer, the troopers would corner me as well. Even if I fought them using my powers, I doubt that I would be able to stop the eviction anyway. There's simply too may of those troopers to beat down. Looks like Nicky is going to win this one.

As I reach the black cab, The Voice makes a surprised noise. "What happened?" I ask.

"I do not know." The Voice responds, mystified, "You did something back there, introduced a new variable into the Crossroads. The constellations are moving very erratically. Whatever you did is interacting very oddly with the forks Fate had built into the Hero's destiny."

"Is that good or bad?" I say with a lump in my throat.

"We will just have to see." The Voice replies, completely bewildered, as the cab drives away.