*
A month has passed by since that swimming break. To be honest, I had lots of fun playing around in the water with Myuu. Especially the part where I steal glances at her skin and watch the water droplets drip down, it was quite a pretty sight I suppose. I had disguised it as mere playing and threw water at her playfully so I could see her get wet. I hope she didn't notice...
Anyway, we did quite a few activities such as building sand castles, accidentally getting sand into our swimsuits from playing too hard, having a nice afternoon picnic and some land-based physical activities. Ones that wouldn't drown us immediately if we stopped moving. Myuu doesn't exactly have a flight supporting skill to fish her out of the water if she fell in, I could help in her stead though it comes with a lot of difficulty.
My magical particle capacity, or 'well' stat has increased immensely since the first time I awakened. The problem was my control over the magical particles, my use and flexibility over magic simply wasn't that refined yet. I have a lot of practicing to do.
"Nee~ Myuu, have you done yesterday's homework?"
Looking up from her bag as she pulled out her books, a slight groan escapes her throat.
"Hnn~? Yeah I did. What about you?" (Myuu)
"Haha, I didn't. This reminds me of the past when I don't do homework at all!"
Exasperated, Myuu released a sigh before admonishing me. Her stern but carin expression burned into my retinas, her dignified stature exuded grace.
"That's not a good thing at all! And wait, you questioned if I've completed my work, while you haven't done yours?" (Myuu)
"... Teehee~."
Class was starting, there was no bell. The chilling air poured out of the repaired air conditioners, sifting through my hair and clothes. There was only 2 weeks left of my extimated recovery time, my stats have roughly recovered to two thirds of its original grandeur. Class time came and went, before I had noticed, everyone was diligently packing their own belongings. Some carried bags, others manually held their books with their arms.
Splitting paths from Myuu, we lived in opposite directions from the school, so it had become routine to walk together to a T-shape junctionn before seperating. A loud roar echoed in the distance, not dissimilar to the sun warrior's attacks. Though they had attacked that month and a half ago, an envoy had been sent to inform us of their new disposition. Well, only their leader was blood thirsty anyway, the foot soldiers themselves had shockingly little casualties. Both sides took less than 8 loses and they decided to move past it, their new attitude towards us being more passive in nature.
Perhaps the sun warrior had finally found the Eye God, so the subordinates decided to prioritise safety and introduce diplomacy instead. There was always that route through peace. In any case, she had no more reason to be here. It couldn't be her. A new group is attacking? Security should have tightened since the last incident, so a group was needed if anyone wanted to attempt terrorism.
It isn't wise to attack a city full of magical girls, everyone had at least C to D grade in magical girl effectiveness grading, meaning that given the right technique or skill, anyone here was able to bend metal.
This enemy either had too little information, or too much, enough to be confident in attacking in such an outlandish manner. Security enforcers should arrive in less than a minute, it's quite worrying to hear such ominous things on your way back home. My legs accustomed to the route back to my place of residence, bent oddly in the next moment. It was a much too familiar sensation, one that hadn't been encountered in months since I became a magical girl. Usually it would assault my senses when I sit for a long time and stood up in an instant.
Being stuck in my magical girl form all the time, my body was at the peak of health. It was the optimal form for combat after all. That was why this feeling, fatigue, was an anomalous one. Abnormal, something is happening. I shouldn't feel fatigue unless I waste too much magical energy....! Tch, I knew something was up. I wonder if anyone has a resistance... to... this...
With only air in the way, my cheek collided with the concrete. There was no way a simple fall would damage my body, but the collision was still jarring. The usual spicy and searing hot pain from a slap was nowhere to be found, only the chilling stare of the ubiquitous concrete. Common folk, or how we magical girls call them, normal people aren't able to use magic. They could possibly operate magical tools, but activated magical particles inside tools have an adverse effect similar to radiation poisoning. This meant that the enemy who used this large-scale magic was either a witch or a magical girl.
Witch's were common people, humans who originally cannot make use of magic. Through forbidden or unknown means, they gain a resistance to magical particle poisoning and can fully utilise magic. Of course, some might be unsuccessful and their usage of magic becomes limited. Others could be said to rival magical girls. The only difference is that magical girls could be said to be innate users of magic, while witches were unnatural inventions of human ingenuity. While there are more differences than that, witches were a rare existence.
***
A lethargy assaulted my mind, causing the act of opening my eyes to be a struggle. A high-pitched ringing prolonged in my ear as light entered my retina to bring an unfamiliar scenery. It felt like my body was an empty barrel, devoid of energy. Even lifting my torso up took an immense amount of effort. I concentrated, the blurry vision of my mind slowly gaining clarity as colours fell into the right place. A facility of sorts, white as far as the eye could see brilliantly lighting a massive room. An estimate of it's dimensions were too hard to guess with how large it was, many faces familiar and unfamiliar spread out from where I sat.
Feeling a little odd, I looked down to see my already pitiful chest had become even more pitiful. Moreover the clothes I were wearing had become slightly tighter. It was disorienting with my limbs now having a different length.
"?!... kFUGHHHHHHaahhh..."
It wasn't anything worldbreaking or strange, its colour familiar and its warmth uneasy as usual. A dark crimson spread over the white tile in front of me, the brightly lit room somehow started to become darker. Uneasiness, nervousness, anxiety, confusion, just the feeling that something isn't right relentlessly pounded on my shrunken mind. It hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts. I try to distract myself with the pain, but I can't ignore the glaring truth, the elephant in the room.
I had reverted back into my normal form, my human form, my original. Kaoru, my androgynous face and outgrown hair could disguise it a little, but there was no doubt that I had grown taller and more lean. My voice went deeper when I threw out all that blood from my throat and lungs, my sight grew hazier from all of it. Lastly, the wounds from the anti-magic stop regenerating at a super human rate. The blood would keep leaking into my lungs, and it would suffocate me. The pain was so much that I could only lie on my belly while hugging my chest tight.
From what I can tell, the large scale magic drained everyone of their magical particles. How it did it in an instant and why I was brought here, I can't decipher that at all. I grew tired easily from exercise even when I was a magical girl, considering their exercise was rather extreme. However now, just breathing was difficult.
"haa~ aghh haa~aghh haa~ aghh"
An excruciating experience for my lungs, does the anti-magic force my ribs to go into my lungs? Why is it so inconvenient... Ughh it's getting harder to think. For now, I need to calm down. After the whole incident with the attacks on the labyrinth by small factions and such, I thought it'd be better to have some healing magical items on hand. Preferably consumables that could be concealed. It was a tiny amount, possibly negligible. But it was all I had. I cracked open a pill inside my mouth, whoever kidnapped us couldn't possibly check everyone's jaws.
It was only in cases like this, where I was thankful my face was slightly girly. I would say as long as I don't speak I could blend in and cover my face with my fringe. It would make me look like an emo in a sailor uniform, but it should work a bit. I've mastered the way of not drawing attention in middle school, what to do and what not to do has been firmly ingrained into my soul. Incidentally, I had ordered my uniform to be custom made slightly larger in case something like this happened in school. It was a request made in the earliest days, before I was assaulted by that magical girl, before turning back into a guy was accompanied by a half destroyed...
The healing magic took place, and a tiny soothing effect began to comfort my chest's insides. My vision finally began to clear up, and I slowly looked around my surroundings. Of course the blood would draw the most attention... I can't do anything about that, for now I need to think of a way out... From what I've seen, there's a door at the end of this area.
The problem is that no one has the magical particles to break through it. Where's Kanou... Doesn't she have that teleportation ability? It would allow her to escape the giant magical spell that sucked up all our magical particles dry... From what I've seen while looking around, she's not here. On the other hand, all my classmates are here. Not much more than a fewers could have passed, since I'm still alive. Otherwise my condition would have killed me.
The healing magic doesn't last forever, I have a time limit. 3 hours? Well I can't stop to think about that. I need the solution now. No tools, reinforced magic door. Empty room.... I can't see it. I'll ask around then. Male magical girls aren't rare right? Hopefully they won' t freak out at me in a sailor uniform here. It was a little tight at first, but I kind of got used to it. Works to have a lean figure huh. If only I had a mirror to see how weird I looked.
My legs have gotten a little numb from sitting too long, an effect of being normal huh. Forcing myself up, I clenched my teeth and brushed my knee onto the ground. Using that momentum I placed all of my weight onto my other foot to bring myself up. Landing my second leg on the ground safely, a spike of pain struck my torso where my lungs were. I crutches it tightly, enduring the infuriating pain. Infuriatingly irritating, it was in the way of my goal. I have to be careful not to bite my tongue and power through it.
I could barely muster a wobble, I hobbled over the ground like a drunk. My steps were unstable and trembling, I must cover the distance. They're not that far away, a hundred more steps? Whatever, that didn't matter anymore in this small time gap I've been given. I must grasp it. I must at least free the others!
As my heart was filling with resolve, my steps quicken. After a third of the way, they've already noticed. My right hand covered in the blood I previously spat out like a fountain, I lifted it to my chest and made a fist. My right elbow bent and left limp, I made an audible smack against my chest. My right fist faced the left as it collided with the top left of my chest , a chest salute of sorts. Blood had been dripping down my lips for a while, I stretched one finale smile with my lips and cheek. She smiled back, I knew she was Myuu.
Even untransformed I could instantly recognise her smile, her expression was pretty much the same even if her features were different. Long black hair let down to her shoulders, relaxed droopy eyes, mole on the left side of her pristine white neck. It was what her mother described to me her appearance as, yet she looked very alike the form I knew. That was because she was always smiling even in this sea of gloomy untransformed magical girls.
Through her brilliance out shining even the whiteness of this room, I could see hope. Hahah no, she's even brighter than hope.
"Yo, I'm going to pass out soon. I trust you've got this?"
"Yeah, I was just looking for you. Though I couldn't recognise you at first, who would wobble here like that! Hah, it was just like a creep." (Myuu)
"Un. So how do we solve this?"