*
Title: Kaorin
Magical girl effectiveness level: C
Perimeters:
- Physical: C
- endurance: C
- speed: C
- will: D
- well: D
Checking my own capabilities with the status cube one last time, my mind teetered on the edge over whether to make the first move or not. Disregarding physical feats, information would come first in a battle of magic. Information, magic, skills, combat dress skills, combat dress weapons, summons, all sorts of things could happen in a battle between magical girls, caution is but a requirement if I want to survive. Perhaps I shouldn't make use of an ambush and observed instead.
Even though my name was Kaoru, it would show up as Kaorin in my status board... I guess it's to cover my identity. In that case, I should keep my identity a secret. Well it's thrown out of the window with my colleagues though. Even if the dust explosion from the broken wall managed to conceal my transformation, I don't think they are dumb enough to think Kaoru disappearing and Kaorin appearing is a coincidence.
".... Run... Kaorin... Her effectiv.... L... Is... S class..." (injured girl)
"... Wouldn't that make running impossible?"
"It's okay... I've still got my skills" (Injured girl) she struggled to talk as her throat seemed to be quite damaged. Blood was dripping out of her lips like a slow fountain, she looked up at me weakly as if pleading for my survival.
"... Then we should fight together..."
"Oh ho~ You think you can beat me with such a low effectiveness level? My country doesn't use those, but surely the difference between an S class and a C class is clear for all to see. I can tell just by looking at you. Name's Ray, not like you'll remember it after you die. " ( Ray)
In any case, I can't afford to lose here or all my friends will die. They seem to be frozen from fear, as not a sound could be heard other than the beating of their hearts. Unlike an unintelligent monster, this enemy will be able to distinguish people who are playing dead and people who are actually dead. I must drive her away.
First skill activate, 2nd technique-wind barrage. Crossing my palms over the other, the dust began to swirl around Ray followed by the concrete. A sharp whirlwind of destruction surrounded the 2, the particles in the air gradually speeding up to the point cuts have started to appear on Ray's limbs. From what I assume to be the other girl's skill, none of the dust and debris was managing to land a hit on her.
As if swatting a fly, Ray dispelled the magic after a quick swipe into thin air. Though the swipe was followed by a ridiculous shock wave that tore through everything in a straight path. The ground and ceiling cracked and gave way under the pressure, resulting in a large ravine in the middle of the building and a constant raining of debris. That's it! If she can't see m-
*BAMMM*
The dewy collision of liquid and floor resounds in my eardrums, as if it were wistful to meet the floor, the sound bounced off the ground with absolute crystalline precision. Like a delicate balance between strength, speed and coordination, it echoes off with the instrumental ring of a triangle.
"... KUHAGHHHHHH"
Unable to bear the internal pressure, I released my jaw as what seemed to be a bucketvs worth of blood splatter forth into the building near the irrigation grounds.
*Plip... Plip*
Again, that all too familiar sound of liquid colliding against solid, followed by the micro splashes of liquid against liquid. The surface tension displaying its tenacity under the pressure of the liquid droplets, the red liquid droplets. Blood. Without much of it in my body, I hung right on the arm that's run through my torso with sheer force.
What seemed to be the injury as well was morphing wildly as if it had become a seperate being, constantly expanding, contracting, shifting, inverting, disappearing into dust, materialising out of thin air. The only constant was that my magic girl combat dress was not moving at all, the torn hole in it that usually regenerates is not moving a budge. It seemed as if it was a completely normal dress if not for its odd colour scheme.
... I wonder if this is the end... I wanted to at least be a cool magical girl. If not the cool type, maybe the cute type. I'm... Not... Satisfied... Anything? Any skill in this nick of time to undo this situation? Haha, as if... Only after a bunch of hard work, then maybe I could reach the stars. If its all futile, then I'll just have to take what I can get. Its clear moving would be a bad idea, the magic is cancelling the pain and allowing me to think. After I run out of magic and cancel the transformation, this injury would immediately kill me. If I don't do anything, Ray will kill me.
Looks like all her skill does is cancel off magic, yet its incredibly useful and really all she needs with those ridiculously high stats. Her range seems to extend to where her hands touch, isn't this perfect? I am current leaning on to Ray with half her arm on the other side of my body, I can't feel my limbs but the soft brushing of her breath is still present near my head. It's easy to reach her head where her arm is not present.
My arms hand limp by my sides, I struggle to shape an 'OK' sign with my left arm before unloading blood onto Ray's face. My body couldn't take much more, her anti-magic kept morphing the area around my torso that after blood was transported away from the area by my veins, the morphing created more blood out of magic. I was going to keep regurgitating blood until it clogged my lungs and drown me. I might immediately lose consciousness after this one hurl of it though. So I aimed it at Ray's face, at the same time a different type of warmth different from the one burning in my abdomen filled me to the brim.
As if supporting my body and bringing it back to life, it pushed in my final attack. It must be the support magic of that other girl. A sense of camaraderie in this life and death situation, we belonged in the same faction after all. And it didn't do anything complex really, it simply gave me the power to touch Ray's face with my right hand while she was blinded.
First-skill activate, just unload everything I have into this one shot.
The moment my finger made contact with Ray's face, it exploded. To control and force the wind inside her body outwards, her anti magic only affected the areas where her hand touched. So her head and body was completely unprotected. Usually her superior stats would simply allow her to dodge such an attack. But, I guess she got complacent. Why did she even come here anyway? Was she rampaging randomly?
It didn't matter at this point. Even with my above human endurance of a magical girl, if an equal amount of strength were to pass through it, I would die. She exhausted my magic just from the constant disabling of my regeneration. By allowing a bit through and activating her power again, repetitively, she would waste off my stockpile of magical particles. How cruel.
"Here, take my magic instead. You need it more to regenerate..." (Injured girl)
"... You'll.. Risk your own... Identity.."
Her eyelashes shooed forcefully as her eyelids widened in bewilderment. Before her skin wrinkled between her eyebrows, sweat dripping down her face with visible exhaustion.
"And that's... Why the hell would that be more important? I'm just a support type anyway, it would have been better for you to run away and protect yourself instead of risking it like THAT!!!" (Injured girl)
"... Why did you think I was here in the first place? I couldn't let my friends die... "
"... Just shut up and rest. I'll send a report to my superior later. I'm guessing you haven't been through training, giving so many openings. You're barely lucky that you got a different type of offensive skill that bypasses that enemy's defense. You should stop endangering yourself. "(Injured girl)
" hmpf, it's in convenient... Tell me your name before I rest. "
"... The one that shows up on my status is Erimiin. Call me Eri... " (Eri)
The flush of pale pink on her cheeks were adorable, her embarrassment was cute. Burning that image of this new friend into my mind, I blacked out.
******
When I came to, I was under a vast white ceiling above a sea of beeping noises and chilled air. Curtains shift around, the occasional pitter pattering resounds across the floor of unknown material. Each step making a clasping sound as if deliberately to shake off and push away my own slumber. My body was far too rigid and unmovable, like pushing a mountain without magical girl powers to help.
The surface of my lips stuck together as dryness occupies my mouth. Even my eyes felt dry and strain, as if they had been staring at the sun for hours. My chest felt unbelievably hot, it didn't feel warm at all, it felt excessive heat that had nowhere to go other than to collide with my flesh and cause discomfort. Shifting my toes for a bit, that meagre movement allowed me to get a keen sense of my own height. Basing it on my sense of touch and most importantly my eye level, I seemed to be shorter than my usual self. So I must still be in my magical girl form.
It hurts.
It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. IT HURTS. IT HURTS. IT HURTS. IT HURTS! IT HURTS! IT HURTS! IT HURTS! IT HURTS! IT HURTS!! IT HURTS!! IT HURTS!!!!
Not just my chest! The heat had spread to my stomach like a tsunami, specifically where I was struck atrociously by that enemy magical girl. It felt both hot and cold at the same time, a searing intensity that scorched my nerve to the limit from the inside, followed by a completely chilled tundra on the outside. Surrounding that region of absolute freezing agony was stillness. The rest of my body had gone so still, so NUMB!! That it ached in every nook and cranny of my body.
I was laying face up on a bed while immobile, presumably this was a facility akin to a hospital. Whether this was a normal hospital or one from that underground base was unknown. All I knew was that my body hurt like hell incarnate, my perspiration from all that heavy breathing and crying was dropping down my cheeks and forehead like a heavy downpour.
A few hours later I woke once more after fainting from the pain. The scenery didn't change a bit, and my vision even felt a little blur. I could somewhat hear the noise of speech near by, there was finally someone present in the vicinity, albeit with extremely muffled communication. Are my ears not working well? My pain in my torso has finally subsided, but now a migraine was starting to arise in my head...
Calming myself down, I try to recognise my surroundings as much as possible. Putting all my meagre strength in, I propped myself up into a sitting position while trying to look around. This was mostly an unfamiliar place as the normal hospitals have all been destroyed by the great disaster. The imitation ones that are being used temporarily, in case anyone got injured from work, are not developed to this extent where heart rate monitors and drips are present. At most, they could only offer first aid or tying up broken limbs and helping to treat bone fractures.
The staff next to me immediately alerted the others while attending to me. Of course, my vocal chords were too dry to be of use , so communicating was not an option either. All I could do was sit there and stare as a few important looking individuals tick off a checklist in front of my face. Well, at least that meant that I wouldn't die any time soon, right?