*
I've always been a normal girl. I got through life by gliding along its flow, much to the chagrin of my overzealous parents. The type that keeps asking for more, you know? And you give in to what they want, as the only child I had no measurement of what was normal. I only kept providing the ideal daughter, prim and proper, so that they would stop being worried.
Sometimes I understand. Mostly, I don't. They are worried for me, they want what's best for me, but if I continued on living this childhood so emptily, who is it for in the end? The perfect achieving daughter, the one that never betrayed expectations. Just what did it mean to fulfill all of their worthless fantasies of a flawless daughter? Is there an end to it? What is at the end? What is beyond the end?
Everyday was an indistinguishable routine, I was pushed and thrown along the flow but never against it. Going to school, I suppose the classroom was what little hallowed ground I have left. It was a tiny speck of what I could proudly refer to as 'myself'. Everyday when I returned home, a pile of books welcomed me. At home, there were no toys, no form of entertainment, and most sites that hosted games were blocked off the Internet. Downloading games required a password, and such 'entertaining games', I got sick of really quick.
Burrying my free time in books was inhuman, a schedule was set to properly distribute my time. Added into the mix was exercise, some time with the music tutor, and a little cooking with mother. Unlike mother, father was much more forgiving ,though he couldn't disobey her in the end and slowly drifted away. Was it perhaps because I showed them I was capable? I use to earn praises when I was a child, but now it seemed to be something expected of me. It was like a decade long pit of quicksand, even if I tried my best to reach the border, that would simply be my new starting point as the border gets dragged into the centre where it is deepest and a new border forms.
It didn't seem mystical, but mechanical. A logical conclusion, yet unnecessarily cruel. I do my best, I get results, they ask for more next time. Repetitively sinking me into despair until even my father started to have high expectations of me. Unlike mother who was cold and strict, I had once yearned for father's warmth and kindness. It was unfortunate, he was blind to it all as he betrayed MY expectations.
They are all blind, undeserving of this perfect me. Fortunate for them and everyone in the world, I decided. To be benevolent. To not be like those dirt bags and appreciate everything and everyone. They do not deserve me, nobody deserves me. If I am less competent, I will make myself more competent, more perfect. I will also never forget the face of my piano tutor, as I brandished my shitty daily schedule. Unlike when I am at home, I had plenty of interactions with my friends at school.
I understood them surprisingly, when they spoke of their 'games' and 'fun'. I understood perfectly, that I was strange for not having this concept of 'fun'. That is why I thought that I couldn't forgive my parents. For my dreaded upbringing, I assumed that I would have a grudge and needed therapy when I moved out. It was just unfortunate, really,...I couldn't even get mad... Father knew he had troubles at work and barely held on for 6 years before getting fired?
What kind of flimsy trash of an excuse is that?! And what about mother?! She had no job! Why was she unnecessarily such a...?! At the end of the day, I couldn't even hold on to that rage. I merely continued on, wishing that it would all end. And it did, the Great Disaster happened. A magical girl was forced to choose between my parents and I when rescuing. They chose me and carried a few other students with them. The magical girl was closer to the school after all. I awakened a few weeks later to defend my new place of residence from a monster.
Of course I would be chosen. Unlike those clowns, this perfect opportunity presented itself before me. That is why I have to go. If I can't overcome something, I'll simply learn to do it on the spot. As the one who is perfect, I will bring the light of victory.
It was surprising at first, even if we got off on the wrong foot, I was still invited to that volleyball game. I would say I can't help but act haughty in front of my friends. And possibly impatient like that time in the classroom. Hahah, as someone who is perfect, I know myself best that I am not perfect. I cannot afford to boast my talent yet, but I can still afford to protect my friends. I didn't think it would actually happen, but I guess someone heard my wish to remove myself from my parents life. Or perhaps it was the other way around-to remove their life from mine-, well I can't remember at this point.
It's fine though, I have good friends. All I ever wonder now, is about what is exactly being reflected in Kaorin's eyes. Our circumstances were similar, and through that volleyball session, I could at least gauge a bit of her skills. Though our situation is similar, I believe we are more different than anyone else.
Just what exactly do you see that I don't? Kaorin. What is giving you so much hope, while I....
***
"I will go. You are literally half-dead, just rest while I deal with everything. '(Barius Kleine)
' Of course my real name is not Barius, but it no longer mattered or bothered me. It was simply the names of a few people I knew fused together. It seemed to click somehow. ' She thought, proudly that she had some friends who trusted her. Garion Freu and Kenzi Fiur. They stood behind her, they understood only a tiny bit of her determination. But that was enough to support a friend, a friend they have absolute confidence in to free them from that predicament. This wasn't the first situation they found themselves in after all. They both pat her back in encouragement.
".... What do you hope to achieve from this? Just let me go, I'll be able to defend with my barriers." (Kaorin)
" Save your strength for later, understand?" (Barius Kleine)
"... Fine. Be careful out there. I can't exactly fight you in this state, I guess you realised that first. " (Kaorin) Her thoughts were sent disarray for a second. Outside of her personal friend group, Barius had not showed a single ounce of this resolve. What she had before was a mere vestige, a small proportion of her capabilities manifesting to make her school life go smoothly. In simpler terms, she had never invested so much effort before. At least not that Kaorin knew of, they were merely acquaintances after all.
Barius nodded to Kaorin's words, before turning towards the door.
"Alright, the spear is about to fire in a few seconds. Go next to the door. I'm sure you're smart enough, but wait for the spear to destroy the door first before going out. I don't want to watch you geting skewered as our formation instantly crumbles after that. I'm sure everyone else has already readied themselves, whether they were participating or not in this escape. "(Kris)
The formation was simple, there was only enough magical particles to allow a single person to transform instantly. The rest would take time to gather more magical particles before being able to transform, so the one must be able to defend everyone and not die before their escape.
Without another second wasted, she rushed towards the side of the door. It was surreal to see what seemed to be a high school running with as much effort as she could muster in this blindingly white room. Try as she might, before she could reach the wall, a loud crashing sound rang out after a red flash phased through the door. It was followed by an explosion of debris on the other side, disintegrating the door in an instant, the smoke rushed in from outside and any possible resistance from the kidnappers would also have been vaporised.
It was a wonder, with the spear spinning that much while they were all talking, how much momentum had it gathered? It had already spun so fast that it was a blur in a few seconds, just the air around it should have started to heat up. Though the spear got smaller and smaller, as if the blood itself vaporised and was used as fuel for magical energy. That was probably why it had a time limit, even if it became more powerful overtime, it becomes smaller and affects less area when it launches. Though, just now it had enough energy to cause a small explosion outside.
It was now apparent that Kris had at least expected a little bit of this situation, causing her to launch the spear early. The wall around the door wasn't completely gone, but a sizable chunk a quarter the width of the door had been blown into nothingness, if such debris hit Barius, she could have sustained a lethal injury. So the spear was launched before she got too close. She stopped moving out of shock when the spear whizzed pass her, an intuition of sorts that told her moving anymore forward would be dangerous.
Perhaps even untransformed, or maybe because she was untransformed, her body was more sensitive to the amount of magical particles burning in that spear. It detected it as a danger and activated its fight or flight response, mainly flight because she was aware that it was a bomb. After the secondary explosions possibly from pipe wreckage leaking gas, she ran out to transform in an instant. It was perhaps suitable to a terrifying degree that they had picked her instead.
The smoke had passed into the white room where it was devoid of magical particles, so no one could use their skills to protect themselves from the smoke. The sheer quantity of soot and thick black fog in the air would cause anyone who breathed it in to pass out. In fact the hot air may even burn their lungs to a crisp, worsening Kaorin's lungs if she were the one to run out.
Yet, Barius was perfectly fine. One had to breath in the smoke to pass out, so she held her breath and endured the heat. Then she transformed, her magical combat dress's passive ability was suitable for this situation. As one who manipulates water, the dress needed to give her the ability to survive high pressures and remove the need for oxygen. Or else her own magic would kill her. If Kaorin were to ran out, she would need to find clean air first before forming a bubble of sort to protect herself, it was far more risky than barely going outside the room and transforming.
Forming high pressure water with magic, she launched it along the horizontal hallway which faced the room's exit and jumped back into the room. The water pushed some of the thick pitch black smoke away, but her main goal was this. It had only been a few seconds since the gas explosions, if someone water manage to make contact with extremely hot gas, it would cause a steam explosion and blow some of the smoke away.
Anyway, all the guards if any were there in the first place, are dead. If one thought about it long enough, Kris could form a protective shield or a dummy with the blood, finish off a single enemy and use their blood next. As long as they don't explode like the ones we didn't get a chance to encounter.
***
It took a couple hours for the fog to completely clear up, but by that time a few of us already transformed.