A/N: This story is inspired by the magical-girl genre in anime and the plot idea that was given away by Synthrael on the 2009 National Novel Writing Month Adopt a Plot thread. I make no claims to the original idea...but the plot details, supporting characters and charictarizations are all me so please do not steal. Reviews are welcome though.

Summary: Raiden Satoshi is a mindwalker, someone who can enter a mind and fix or break it. he works at a hospital, using his powers for good. There’s nobody he can’t help…except for Ayame. Ayame “Star Princess Ayame” is a former Magical Girl, defeated and then tortured by her arch-enemy. She used to save Tokyo on a daily basis with her Star Sceptre, but is now reduced to a shell of her former self. When Raiden enters her mind, he finds it like nothing he’s ever seen before. It is a place where gravity and physics are optional, monsters haunt the streets, and Ayame herself is at the center of the twisted city, a prisoner in her own mind. It will take all of Raiden’s ability to find her before its too late. ~Synthrael

© Anjirika 2009

Prologue: At the End

This is Doctor Inari Oda with Patient Three-Two-Zero. Female. Approximately Age Seventeen. Not responsive. Totally Comatose. We have tried various treatments in order to get a response but nothing has worked. We only have one left. It is highly unusual and very expensive, but our patron has taken a special interest in this girl, this Moriko as we call her, for she was found in the green space. A Mind Walker has been called in, some say that he is the last Mind Walker on the islands; either way he is her only hope now, as I believe she is ours.

--Voice Diary of Dr. Inari Oda. December 17th, 3PM.

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Four Months Earlier

“And in other news, latest research has shown that the ‘Star Princess Ayame’ is nothing more than a mass illusion caused by the intense solar radiation….” With a click she hit the mute button for the television, but as the pictures continued to show she couldn’t help but feel the tears welling up in her eyes.

“Don’t they understand?” she asked herself as she sat in front of her TV watching the blurred and distorted images that had been captured over the last few months fly by. “Don’t they understand that every time I…” she stopped in mid sentence, shook her head and turned her attention from the television to the window. It was raining, which wasn’t unusual for Tokyo during the summer but it was the ominous way that the rain was falling and the lightning was flashing—lighting without thunder—something that was quite unnatural. She knew that with the intensity of the rain the storm was right upon them and therefore there should have been thunder, but there was none.

It’s Dark Star, she thought to herself as she rose to look at the window. I know it.

With a deep breath she turned and picked up her star sceptre which was currently in its hidden form as a star necklace. She put the necklace around her neck. It was a silver piece of jewelery with a three-dimensional silver star pendant at the end. To all eyes it seemed like a normal necklace, but for Suki it was the means of her power. With it around her neck, she made her way out of her apartment. She passed her mother, her klutzy and ditzy mother in the kitchen trying her best to prepare dinner and she had to stop. Should I say goodbye? she asked to herself She is my mother after all and should I—

“Oh there you are Suki,” her mother Hoshi Ren stated with a smile as she turned to face her daughter. “Dinner should be ready in an hour or so and—” she paused and noticed that her daughter, her only daughter was dressed to go out. “—where are you going? The weather’s horrible”

“Oh I uh—I’m going out.” Suki replied tripping over her lie. She had lied to her mother countless times over the last couple of months and yet it never got any easier. “Don’t worry Mama,” she continued forcing a grin to her face. “I’ll be home in an hour or so. I’m just running to the store to get some more school supplied.

Hoshi returned her daughter’s smile. “That’s my daughter, working hard on school. Don’t be long my little Suki and have a good time.”

“Thanks Mama.” Suki replied and with a heavy heart she turned from her mother and left her apartment for what she felt was the last time. I have to do this, she told herself as she got into the elevator. I have to confront Dark Star in order to protect my mother and my friends… Suki paused in her thinking. Her two best friends in the entire world were Tama Kin and Daiki Matsu. The three of them had grown up in the same street until her father died and her mother had to downsize to an apartment. They had remained friends and yet neither of them knew anything about her secret life as Star Princess Ayame. If she were to die they would never know why, all they would know is that the third part of their trio had been drifting away from them for months.

That part was unavoidable, Suki thought to herself as she walked through the streets of Tokyo with nothing but a raincoat on and the tower glowing in the distance despite the rain. I mean how could I be friends with them out in public. If Dark Star had learnt who they were—they would have been attacked from her shadow minions. I couldn’t let that happen. Not in a thousand years would I let my dear Tama or my dear Daiki get hurt…

Suki trailed off. She could feel the forces of Dark Star growing around her. The wind began to roar and for the first time, loud thunder clapped in the sky. This is it, she told herself as she looked around, glad to see no one in this part of town. The final battle… and with a resolute face Suki took off her necklace and let it dangle in front of her between her hands. “I call upon the powers of the Stars!” she cried out in a loud clear voice as she let the necklace hang in the air of its own accord. “Let your sacred light bring me the strength that I need….Star Princess Ayame DESCEND!”

In a blinding flash of light the seventeen year old girl known as Suki Ren disappeared and when the light dissipated the Star Princess Ayame stood in her place. Star Princess Ayame had a small silver tiara topped with her pendant on her head. Her hair was done up in a pony-tail with her bangs which were growing out hanging down the sides of her face. She wore not the school uniform that she had been wearing before but instead she had on a form-fitting yet highly protective silver jumpsuit that had added material over top to create flowing sleeves and a flowing skirt. On her feet she had on silver boots that were also very protective and very useful for bounding over the tops of buildings. In her hands was her Star Sceptre which had a silver star at one end and a bottom that instantly transformed into a sword at Ayame’s command.

This is it, Star Princess Ayame told herself as she held out her Star Sceptre in front of her. This is the final battle. If I defeat Dark Star then I will finally be able to return to my normal life. I will be able to spend quality time with Tama and I will be able to tell Daiki how I really feel… a smile crossed Ayame’s face as she called upon her magical-girl powers. She could see Dark Star beginning to appear in front of her and she knew that in just a couple of moments, everything would be over. This is it; this is how the battle ends. Dark Star will be no more and Star Princess Ayame will be able to ascend to the heavens once more…

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December 19th, Four Months Later

“Excuse me?” interrupted a male voice as he rapped on the doorframe of the open window. “Are you Doctor Oda?”

Inari Oda looked up to see the young handsome face of a man standing before her and instantly her face lit up. “You must be Raiden Satoshi.”

Raiden nodded. “That’s right.”

Inari smiled and held out her hand which Raiden shook. “It is an honour to meet you. I have been petitioning the hospital board to get a Mind Walker in here for years but the only time that they will listen to me is when Star Princess Ayame is my patient.”

“Where is she?” asked Raiden. “I would like to get to work as soon as possible.”

Inari nodded in complete understanding. “Right away, if you will follow me.”

Inari rose from behind her desk and led Raiden down the hospital corridors. “Don’t get me wrong,” she began in a hushed whisper so as not to disturb the patients and the other doctors. “It’s not that I oppose Dark Star’s rule, it’s just that I miss being able to go out at night. The curfew she has imposed on all of us is brutal and if you don’t mind me saying so, her closing the shrines across Tokyo has just rubbed me the wrong way.”

Raiden nodded. Life under Dark Star wasn’t totally unbearable, she only demanded that the night be left to her and that they worship her and not pay homage to their Kami or any other deity. And while the first couple months had been filled with hope that the government would do something, or that the great American army would come and save the world from a total take over by an extra terrestrial being, nothing happened. Dark Star’s power slowly spread throughout Japan until every tiny inlet and island was under her control. She seemed to be content with that, but Raiden knew that that if he could bring Star Princess Ayame back from the recesses of her mind then their world might be able to go back to the way that it had been.

“Here she is,” Inari stated and Raiden was taken aback at what he saw. There before him, laying in a foetal position on the bed was a young girl, no more than seventeen. She still wore her outfit from the final battle, the clips of which had somehow ended up on You Tube yet no one had seen her transform. Raiden was horrified to see the state that her costume was in. There were cuts and rips everywhere. Her dress and sleeves her tattered, her hair had come undone from its neat bun and her tiara was broken in half. Her Star Sceptre was no where to be found and all in all she looked broken, destroyed.

“What—?” Raiden asked, almost too shocked for words. “What happened?”

Inari sighed. “Best anyone can guess is that when Dark Star and the Princess disappeared, the battle continued and Star Princess Ayame lost. What happened after that is anyone’s guess but based on her catatonic state and the way that she was found—well it is my professional opinion that she was tortured.”

“Oh…” Raiden sighed his heart reaching out to the girl. “The poor thing…did no one think to change her clothes?”

“Of course we did,” Inari stated. “But she’s a magical girl. Her clothes won’t come off. There’s nothing that we can do. Her physical wounds have healed and the material is slowly repairing itself as well. You should see her case file pictures, there was so much blood that the doctors who initially stabilized her thought that she was going to die.”

“And yet here she is…”

“Here she is,” Inari echoed. “Our only hope.”

“And I’m hers,” Raiden stated with a sigh as he crossed the room to where Ayame was laying. “Do not worry Princess, I will save you.” Raiden took her hands in his, closed his eyes and began to concentrate. Slowly he began to feel their two essences becoming one, but then all of a sudden just as he was about to cross the threshold into her mind he was thrown back with so much force that he was thrown across the room.

“Are you alright?” Inari asked.

Raiden nodded. “I’m fine. But you’re going to have hook me up to an IV because I have a feeling like this is going to take a very, very long time.”