Mary and Karla tried to adjust to their home life for the past few days, getting used to being finally home, in their own bed, in their room and without the constant eye of the doctors.

  For Mary, it was nothing short of heaven, to finally have the freedom to read whatever she wanted, without being afraid it would be difficult for their mother to carry them into the hospital.

  For Karla, it was a surreal experience, finally home in a room that felt like her room, but was not quite. Spending the days examining the deep blue wallpaper in the room, to various posters of seinen anime, with a fine smattering of other esoteric genres.

  They also spent their time trying to get used to each other, a task that wasn’t particularly hard, just deeply strange. Especially when it came time to decide on outfits.

  “Like I said, If we are going to be making an effort to learn how to protect ourselves, and be capable from now on.

  It would be better if we got our own body into shape, and with that direction in our life, we should start wearing more athletic outfits.” Karla remarked, staring in the mirror, wearing one of their school gym outfits on their body.

  Karla had their base memories to see how they previously looked before the Burglar murder, but having the recollections didn't change how their hospital stay affected their body mass. Their body was pretty skinny to begin with, but now it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to call them lanky, especially with their height making them a cool 6 feet tall.

  She stretched her arms above her head, admiring the ensemble she had managed to pull together from whatever was on hand. A grey sports top covered her chest, along with a set of grey gym shorts.

  Karla wouldn’t say it out loud or in their mindspace, but she was certainly amused by the fact they had even got the school pieces in the first place, as pulling up the memory reveals that they got the ensemble in the first place to get a favor from their mom for something down the line.

  “I wish I hadn’t gotten these things then, or I guess we- whatever. We got them because it was an easy deal to take, a bit of embarrassment of wearing them a few times in exchange for extra ice cream.

  But now…Just seeing you wear it so shamelessly makes me feel like I shouldn’t have offered the deal in the first place.”

  Mary remarked with an embarrassed blush, having swapped at one point to see what they were wearing, and promptly begged Karla to switch back, rolling around on the grass in the clearing, her hands covering her face.

  “I don’t mind if we refer to our time before I came around as I, though we definitely should stick to the use of We when we’re alone. Just so that we aren’t confused in the future. “

  Karla softly chortled, as she thought about their old world, about her old frame, she wasn’t a musclebound warrior, but she was toned enough to be proud of her body…guess just another thing she will have to work on for them.

  She also grabbed one of their few jackets, a nice navy leather jacket that they had gotten for a cosplay last halloween and put it over their sports top, stretching back and forth, as she watched how the sleeves moved along with her movement, seeing how it settled along her shoulders and her figure.

  Karla smirked at the sight, more than slightly tickled that while she preferred athletic outfits, Mary preferred the outfits that traded practically for all the comfort in the world, like pajamas and sweaters, just a real indoorsy girl with a reading hobby. She found it really adorable, enough to tease her just a little.

  “I think I am gonna wear this today, afterall it is my day I believe. We did agree that we each would get a day after another that we choose our attire, so I hope you don’t mind that I think we should wear this today. I do want to get our body into tip top shape.~” Karla said, shit-eating grin

  “Fine, you can wear the outfit for today, but we aren’t wearing it all the time, but I hope that means we will relax more. We are now a flipping mage, we can summon a monster to do our bidding..I hope.

  We even know that magic is a real thing here, that deserves more naps and book reading!” Mary pouted in their space, as she stopped rolling on the ground and took a seat back on a chair.

  “Just be aware that as soon as I switch back, I am going to want to curl up in blankets and read a book the first chance I get.” Mary quipped with a pout.

  Karla giggled, before stepping out of their room, placing a hand along a wall as she confidently strided forward, making their way down the staircase, as Karla thought about Mary’s comment.

  As far as they understood it, they could intentionally switch whenever they liked. But they had started to notice that whenever Mary got too freaked out or even just exhausted, Karla would be thrown back into the driver seat in her stead without any input from either of them.

  So that was…a fun thing to learn. An excellent thing to learn before it became a serious issue, besides that time Karla fell off a sofa after Mary watched a particularly scary horror movie one night.

  Once they reached the bottom of the stairs, Karla brought up her suggestion for the day, noticing the sun begin to rise from a window nearby.

  “Hey, want to finally start stretching our body a bit more and take a bit of a walk around the backyard? We could even get a bit adventurous and go down the forest trail a bit to test our stamina.”

  “No, let's just stay inside please, even if only a bit longer. Heck, let’s at least wait an hour, if we feel fine then, then we can take a jaunt to the back, okay?” Mary immediately remarked, a tinge of panic at the sudden prospect of exercise outside of her comfy home, even if she knew Karla wasn’t going to be intently dangerous, she still felt worried.

  Thankfully Karla responded to her concerns in kind.“That’s fine with me, I already got my nice outfit on, I don't mind if we wait a bit to make sure we have some time for you, before we go out and have my fun.~”

  Letting Mary take precedence for now, as they took their time walking to the living room, where the biggest TV in the house sat, as Karla casually opened the door and stepped inside, closing the door behind herself and smiling as she let Mary take the lead in another way.

  As mere seconds later, the confident stride and posture they had was replaced by a person who slouched more, and more acutely, blushed upon fully registering the outfit for the first time.

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  “This looks even more embarrassing than I thought, Dear cats below, I am going to be wrapped like a ghost before I let mom see us wearing this again.” Without further prompting, she rushed to the couch and grabbed one of the blankets resting over the top of the sofa and threw it on themselves, doing her best impression of a daruma doll.

  Meanwhile Karla organized the chairs along the tables in their mindspace, having decided to do something quaint while letting Mary take the wheel, though while sweeping a few of the white tables, she does notice that the paint is peeling less and less as of late, the tables seemingly getting newer as time went on. A strange phenomenon but not one that Karla had any idea of how to process, so for now she let it drop.

  Mary sighed as she lay down on the couch in her blanket cocoon while she grumpily stared at the TV, grabbing the report from the nearby table. Grumbling about them having already finished doing the exercises that they had been told to do by the doctor by late morning, that anything more would be just for their own personal suffering.

  Mary turned on the TV, and expected to find something immediately to get her attention, so that she could unwind before Karla dragged their body out in the woods to who knows where.

  But her expectations were unfortunately misplaced, as the first channel was a show Mary had decided wasn’t worth watching after a moment of screen time, she started immediately to idly flip through the channels, flipping between the shows that were currently airing on the tv, and the new releases of anime that were being offered Mekflix.

  “My Villain Academy, no, I don't really like the main character, I just find him too whiny. One Punch Cat, nah, not in the mood for comedy unless Karla is… Koko’s Bizarre Mission might make for some fun ability ideas, but we haven’t used it once since we got home…”

  Mary rattled off a bunch of shows she was seeing on the tv but nothing caught her attention, and before long she groaned as a whole hour had passed and they had seen nothing but her flicking through channels and broadway selections.

  With a loud sigh, she unveiled herself from the cocoon and stared mopily at the time, as she turned her focus inward and spoke.

  “My hour’s up. What did you want us to do anyway outside? I know you mentioned exercise but if the last week has shown anything, I am getting an inkling you wanted to do more than just prance around.” Mary somberly stated, as she walked around, staring out the windows at the uninviting world outside.

  “I was thinking we should get a bit of a look of the forest, to get a better understanding of the area. Especially knowing that the burglar came from that direction and that gate leads to it, but from our base memories I can tell we never thought deeper on that… We should make an effort to change that.

  As it was, we still haven’t found a time to summon that thing again and given its apparent danger when we last used it. I don’t know about you Mary, but I would kinda prefer to do it out in the open this time, in case it is a violent sort.” Karla stated, giving a bit of a stern statement, but one she hoped got the point across.

  She didn't particularly mind that they hadn't summoned it again since, but until they did, their goal of being a person capable of protection and defending themselves with ‘magic’ would be a bit empty, and given they didn’t get into any self-defense classes before the Burglary happened, this was their most immediate avenue for exploration.

  Mary sighed, before heading into the kitchen, and peaking out one of the few windows that overlooked the backyard, and all its nostalgic glory for good and ill.

  They stared out to the backyard, towards the gate of their house, worn and damaged by the burglary, with its old hinge replaced with a new one, along with chunks of the wall replaced with new material to ensure another home invader wouldn’t be soon.

  A reminder of who had come and who had tried to make off with blood money at the first opportunity, a warning by the world of why Karla wanted them to be genuine in becoming proficient in whatever they could, however soon.

  “Lets make sure we have all the supplies first, I want to get this started but any good expedition starts from the beginning of logistics. Lets get a backpack and get the stuff together, okay Mary?”

  Mary muttered an agreement, as she started to carefully search the storage closets on the first floor along with a few other spots and made haste, listening to the instructions Karla was giving her along the way.

  Mary didn’t put up a fight about staying in the house any longer or dragging out the logistics, the suspense was already starting to get to her and she just wanted this adventure to be over already, so that they could be back home, back on the couch or on the bed in blankets, relaxing before their mom got home.

  They gathered some supplies that Karla recommended, starting first with getting a knife for any large animals who might be on the trail. Though they weren't expecting to see any at this time of day, let alone around the trail that's used every so often by people. So it was largely for their peace of mind, even if Karla was already debating who the knife would be actually used on, speculating on a few possible candidates.

  Some snacks to feed themselves, as they would need at least a little food while they're out and about in the forest. Especially as they still hadn't fully recovered, this jaunt is going to need all the energy they can get.

  Tossing in a can of Bear spray as well, in case a bear was getting too close for comfort. But they weren’t expecting a bear at all, given that it was still early spring, way earlier than most bears tend to get out of hibernation.

  Once they got everything they wanted in the bag, they closed the bag and made sure the house was locked up before heading back outside, walking through their backyard and before standing in front of the gate again, an imposing boundary that separated a tamed garden from the wild forest that embraced the land near their home. The land that their father used to carefully lead them through every Sunday when he had the time to come home, to show them the wonders and dangers of nature.

  Mary trembled, a tear falling down one of their cheeks, she breathed deeply in and out. Taking more than a dozen before she found the courage to step forward and unlocked the gate the intended way, opening it from their side, and stared out into the forest she had been aware of all this time, but never had the courage to return since she was really little.

  She could even see that the path from the gate, connected to the forest trail from a branching path, a secluded spot that passed behind the house, hidden seamlessly from the street end.

  “It really is just, here, this uh path. A trail into the forest and beyond. It really feels surreal looking at this place again.” Tremors traveled through her voice, even while Mary did her best to not look away.

  “I will take your word for it, just try to get used to standing there for a second before taking more steps, Mary.”

  Though Karla couldn’t see what Mary was staring at, she was thinking about the forest regardless, having a sneaking suspicion that even if the man didn't have a specific reason to target their household for a robbery.

  She suspected with the trail so close by, it wouldn’t have been hard to go through the woods and get in the house without being seen from the street. But she didn't share her opinion with Mary, given it was only a concern for the future now, rather than an immediate threat.

  Mary took a deep breath, trying to not beg Karla to come back and take the front seat, as she felt fear and anticipation coursing through their shared body as they began to take steps deeper into the words, away from their home, their comfort zone as she was already having second-thoughts.

  The thought of facing that doll again face to face, seeing the world outside her comfy home, and just physical effort to find a good spot was…unnerving.“We aren't going too far into the forest, right? We still aren’t fully fit afterall.” Her voice in their mind couldn't be more obvious with her nervousness.

  “Right, of course Mary. We still aren't well enough to go too far into the woods, we'll just find a secluded spot, try out the damn doll and come right back, promise.” Karla stated back, even if she felt it wouldn't be as simple as that.

  Though Mary visibly steeled her steps thanks to her headfriends answer, the pep talk did nothing to make the anxiety that Mary was experiencing any less intense as they exited the back gate and began walking a few steps into the forest, taking the forest trail.

  They head deeper into the words, ready to do a bit of their testing to see what is going on with their magic power. Their steps were light, deeply aware that though this outing was simple in theory, in practice that anything could go wrong, at any time or at any point.

  Karla and Mary had the right idea of preparing for any danger they would come across, if they had come across any during the day. But they would not realize yet that it had gone wrong from the onset. For a particularly large animal had noticed their presence since their departure from their backyard and followed them in the distance.

  Carefully keeping itself hidden as it tracked them, leaving the duo unaware of the danger that was following their every step.