[Adelie]

mahoushoujokae is now live!

"Welcome one, welcome all!" the girl announced in the middle of the tourist center. She was wearing a cosplay-esque outfit of frills and ribbons that would've been described as garish; she was brandishing a cell phone anointed in a pattern that would've been called eye-burning - that is, if people were still able to perceive colors.

Since that was not the case, it took her abrupt outburst on the volcano observation deck to draw the attention of the crowd. "I know you've all been worried sick about this whole 'no colors!' thing," she continued, drawing up her free hand to put scare quotes around her words. "But rest assured, your friendly local magical girl, Kae, is here to investigate - this time, in greyscale!"

"And don't forget," she said, winking directly at her phone. "If you enjoy my content, make sure you sub to my Twitch channel for more!"

[Adelie]

"Of course, every investigation begins by gathering evidence," continued the self-proclaimed friendly local magical girl; despite directing her words at her phone and whatever viewers there were on the other end of her data connection, she swept her gaze over her unwittingly captive audience. "And what better source is there than a primary one - the personal account of an eyewitness? I'm sure someone here is willing to volunteer to help find the truth."

As might be expected, no one volunteered.

The volcano wasn't a particularly popular tourist destination to begin with; with the specter of a mysteriously and suddenly colorless world looming above everyone's head, the only people who had still shown up were those who were either exceptionally unconcerned with the subject or exceptionally unwilling to give up a long-planned vacation - just a few strangers and a family or two, mingling with a skeleton crew of staff in the center.

[Adelie]

So when confronted with a loud - and both voice and demeanor - girl presenting a TED talk to no one, the people there unsurprisingly chose to pretend she didn't exist. Perhaps a few spared her a quick glance to determine if she were a part of some kind of poorly-executed interactive tourist center event or just a lunatic - but the evidence pointed rather convincingly at the latter option.

Of course, she didn't seem particularly discouraged by their lack of interest - it was her virtual audience that she was catering to, not those who were physically here. After all, only one of them had a choice.

[Adelie]

"Why, thank you for volunteering!" she exclaimed, scrambling with impressive dexterity to stand by the side of one tourist who had done absolutely no such thing. Despite whatever chaos she was wrecking on the scene, it was certainly a calculated decision - she had chosen someone who had come to the tourist center alone, who seemed meek and confused enough to not react negatively, and who might even play along.

"Um, I di-" the girl started, breaking off into nervous and almost incredulous laughter as she realized she was on camera. "I - I don't really know what to say."

"Shh," Kae whispered back to her - to the extent that something loud enough to be heard across the room could be considered a whisper - before transitioning smoothly into a perfect television announcer voice. "Good evening, and welcome to the Mahou Shoujo Show. I'm your host, Kae, and I'm here - live, on site, and totally fabulous - to provide the quality investigative journalism you deserve."

[Adelie]

"Now, our first question for this lovely lady over here," Kae directed at the girl she had so effectively appropriated for her own purposes. "What were you doing on the night of the 9th?"

"I -" A multitude of expressions came over her face as she deliberated whether this question was worth answering, why she should even bother to answer it, and what she should even say in response. "Um," she said, coming to the conclusion that perhaps the best way out of this mess was to play along. "I was at home."

"And what were you doing at home?" Kae pressed.

"Uh, I was p-playing video games, I think," she responded nervously.

"You think?" Kae peered intimidatingly at her. "Were you, or were you not, at home playing video games on the night of the 9th?"

[Adelie]

"U-um," the girl stuttered, obviously flustered; even though Kae was taking a certain level of care to make sure there was no physical contact between the two of them, the way she loomed was still menacingly uncomfortable. "I feel like I'm being interrogated," she said, trying to deflect a little by laughing, then gathered her nerves for a much more conclusive statement. "Yes, I was at home playing video games on the night of the 9th."

"Uh-huh," Kae said, sounding decidedly unconvinced. "And do you have any evidence of this? An alibi, perhaps?"

"Well, there's my teammates, I guess," she said. "I was doing a dungeon with them then, and honestly I thought I'd died because my screen went grey." She paused, then added nervously, "I guess you could talk to them too, but I'm sure they're a little busy right now."

[Adelie]

"That's fine," Kae said - she was a reasonable broadcaster, after all, and this line of inquiry looked like it wasn't providing anything of interest. Getting more people involved just seemed like extra complexity, not extra entertainment - and that was what mattered most of all in this industry. "I believe you - for now, at least."

Switching back into her investigative journalist mode, she continued with her next question. "Now that we've ascertained you're not the culprit behind this incident, I'd like to ask you a few questions about what you experienced in this time."

"I'd hope I was never a suspect," the girl ventured warily, but she didn't seem like she was trying to exit the conversation either.

[Adelie]

"Now, let's talk a little about your experiences during this incident," she continued, holding up her phone like a clipboard. "Common reports are that we lost color around 6PM on the 9th. Was that the same for you? How did you first notice?"

"Um," the girl said, using a moment to organize her thoughts; she didn't exactly want to give too many details on her life, especially in front of an audience, but she didn't exactly want to be too vague, either. "Like I said, I was at home, playing video games, when suddenly my screen turned grey. I was so confused because I thought I'd died, so I was asking my teammates what killed me - and then we realized that everything else was grey, too."

[Adelie]

"Interesting," she said, musing over it briefly. There wasn't too much to work with, with an answer like that - she'd hoped for something more interesting, but going with this video games angle seemed like an allowable option. "In the media, we often discuss the rallying cry of 'gamers rise up!' With the newfound power of technologies like blockchain, what kind of actions are the gaming community taking to combat this sudden attack on color rights in this game?"

"Um," the girl said, clearly entirely mystified by the nonsensical mixture of buzzwords she had managed to stuff into one sentence. "I - I don't know what you're talking about, honestly."

"We live in a society," she said. "That's what I'm talking about."

[Adelie]

"I guess," the girl said, sounding still incredibly uncertain about what she was expected to say or to answer. After more than a bit of a struggle - where she almost looked to Kae as if expecting her to continue to elaborate or to bail her out - she continued, "Well, I don't really think there's anything special being done? Like I don't think anyone really knows what the cause of this is, y'know. So there's nothing we can really do besides just wait and see."

"Sounds lame," Kae replied dismissively. "Isn't that just giving up?"

"Maybe," she said. "Sometimes things are just beyond us, though."

[Color Harvested]