A Normal Night Out for Normal Girls

“So… how was the weather yesterday?”

Xana set her fork down on her plate and looked up at Gabriel, who’d asked the question.

The black-backed chairs provided passable seating, and they had gotten quite comfortable at their table in the corner. Their tables were made of some light, varnished wood that Xana and Ririn couldn’t name. Gabriel could, but doing so seemed like it would break her promise for the day she’d made to Xana, and she really wanted to avoid that.

At the few other tables the restaurant offered, and especially at the bar, every other customer seemed to be chatting merrily away with those they’d accompanied. The fluorescent lighting of the place made that painfully clear to all three of them, though they handled this differently. For Xana, it was to be expected. For Gabriel, it was embarrassing. For Ririn, it was a problem to be fixed.

“Who wants to talk about the weather?” she asked. “That’s when Ladies of the Lake premiered! It’s soooo good!”

Xana nodded. “They got a good voice actor for the main characters. I like Lady Black the most.”

Gabriel felt stymied. She had promised to pretend to be normal for today’s night out. She’d said she wouldn’t bring up the Lord, no matter how bad that seemed to her, because even she could admit she couldn’t fake a normal Christian perspective. But nor could she talk about the Aura Gates, about slaying demons, about many of their shared experiences. It was difficult, to say the least.

But there was one thing she could do: tap into the greater mind of the cosmos to which she was linked, to sift through her memories as if using a fine-toothed comb. If she had seen even a glimpse of the show they were watching, she would know.

“I know! Her outfit’s amazing!” Ririn clapped her hands. “They’re all amazingly dressed, but that bodysuit Lady Black wears… she really rocks it!”

Xana’s nod in response was nearly imperceptible. “I liked how she just shot the villain. Really, being a Warrior of Light doesn’t mean you have to let them get away again and again.”

“Wellllll…” Ririn tapped her fingers against her chin. “I guess she never did say she was one of the Heritors, even though it’s totally obvious.”

There. Gabriel had seen this TV show. She’d been in Xana’s room when she was watching the trailer, and they’d passed by a television display depicting one of its scenes on the way there. Given her incredible eyesight, she’d had a view of that display for around two minutes as they walked up the street… and, as it happened, she’d seen one of the pilot episode’s most pivotal scenes with subtitles.

“Lady Yellow struck me as the most impressive of the Heritors,” Gabriel opined. She took a sip of her tea as the other two looked at her, and then continued. “Her persistence is admirable, and though she may be the weakest now, I think she may be the one to defeat Lady Black and turn her to the Heritors’ side.”

“Oh, so you like to root for the underdog?” Xana asked, her attention snapping to Gabriel. “That’s exactly what I’d expect from you. But I don’t think Lady Black needs to be defeated at all. They’re going to convince her by talking about friendship or something.”

“Ohh, yeah, that’s kind of been the trend, hasn’t it?” Ririn held her fingers under her chin, leaning forward and thinking about the episodes thus far. “Especially when Lady Green joined. She’s really big on how all life is precious. I bet nobody was surprised when she made those plants erupt under that giant robot!”

“Mhm.” Xana nodded. Then she looked at Gabriel. “You know, since you’re green, do you have any plant powers?”

Gabriel blinked.

“Associating me with a nature mage to that extent may be taking it a little bit far, but I do have the ability to grow lilies upon command. Though, in truth, that’s an ability common to all of us archangels — we each have one flower that we use as a sign. It only happens that the others tend not to do so in the first place.”

“So that makes you Lady Green. Got it.” Xana nodded again.

“Well, divorced from the context of your ‘sentai’ media… I suppose it’s not a bad title.”

“Hey, now,” Ririn leaned back, making eye contact with Gabby. “It’s a normal night, right? We shouldn’t be divorcing anything from context! Besides, I think Lady Green is a lot like you.”

“Oh? How so?” Gabriel raised an eyebrow as she took a sip of the world’s smallest cup of tea.

“Well, she has strong beliefs, and she can be a bit stubborn, but she’s nice to whoever she thinks needs it…” Ririn explained. “But she DID smash that giant robot, and she even beat the Black Knight in the last episode. So she’s a lot like you!”

Gabriel set her cup of tea down, smiling. “She beat the Black Knight? Isn’t that ‘spoilers’? You really should be more careful, you know.”

“Me and Ririn have a policy,” Xana explained. “If it’s been out for 6 hours, it’s old and you can spoil it.”

“Eh?” Ririn looked at Xana. “I thought we agreed on a whole day.”

“It definitely sounds like you should be more careful.” Gabriel giggled, trickled the rest of her tea down her throat, and then looked up as the server approached with their food. All told, she decided, this “normal night out” wasn’t that bad.

It did, however, mean that she had eleven episodes worth of television to watch, starting tomorrow.