*
" Haa~ I should have known. This body has gotten pathetically weak. Guess that just happens when someone presses it a little too hard."
Back on the ground, she faced me as she began to disperse her ice magic back into magical particles. If left there, a mini winter could happen due to the drop in air temperature. Whether it would last for more than a day is another story.
"A little? That general's attack would phase through my ice and squish pretty much anyone else... I think your skill putting up a slight resistance against it was nothing short of amazing..." (Garion)
"... Wow, I didn't expect you to praise it that much... What happen to the 'ice queen'? "
".... Do not call me that. I have pride because of my faith in my own strength. I'm not an idiot, I can still recognise that that general was a monster of a magical girl. "(Garion)
" And you still act arrogant because?... "
"Listen here, I will not repeat myself. I will surpass everyone and become the strongest." (Garion)
With slightly harder strides, she began to walk back to base, most likely for a refreshing shower. Though it seemed her steps were taken with a little more strength, she still retaiend the usual silence of her steps, not letting go of her own etiquette. But that was the least noticeable factor in the present, because nothing else could match up to her hardened expression. Her brow ridge was creased and her eyes stared straight forward without turning back once.
Well, that's good. It's good if she stays so determined to get stronger, surviving by yourself is nearly impossible in this world, so getting strong allies would be the next best thing. The easiest and hardest would be to get stronger yourself. It is easy because you don't have to convince yourself to protect yourself, unlike when you find a stronger person to protect yourself with. Forging bonds with someone else is another form of this 'convincing', but it takes a ridiculous amount of time. It is also the hardest as it takes way more hard work from oneself, specifically the fact that it's physically and mentally taxing.
Walking over, her russet brown twin tails swayed with her every step. A gentle smile adorned her smug face as her small fingers released a piece of cloth into my palms. Wiping off perspiration with it, I returned a smile and uttered my thanks.
"Let's return. You managed to force her to expend so much magical particles, that's impressive for someone as weak as you." (Myuu)
"... Jeez, you don't have to go that far... Sorry for going overboard I guess, but without that it wouldn't even count as a spar for her. "
Forming a small pout, her iris focused under the evening light to convey her irritation. Like everyone else, she was also wearing the training uniform, which was a dull grey track suit with streaks of dark green at the left side like a certain sports brand's clothing. The colour palette may be different, but the similarity is uncanny. I suppose some trivial things will carry over from older society, even if everything has been wrecked by now and there is nobody to enforce plagiarism laws.
"Well, being low on magical particles has really bad effects on training, so going crazy with the spar prevented you guys into continuing today's training.
Usually there would still be a few more hours you know. Now you have to return alone, I still have my own training, you know~? "(Myuu)
" Right, right... Then I'll be going now. See you later. "
" Mhmm. "(Myuu)
With a ridiculously large patrol region of 60 by 60 km, the way back to the lodging area was naturally positioned quite far away. Even with the strenuous fatigue plaguing my limbs and mind, I would still have to make my way back the natural way. Usually, the trip would be over really quick due to the absurd sprinting speed of magical girls. A single leap could cross hundreds of metres and the trip to the training grounds would only take a few minutes.
The true value of this path was the trip back, when you've worked hard for the whole day to the point of collapsing. The dull aching of overused muscles tearing and repairing, the extensive breathing exercise forced from using too much energy. Walking back under those conditions was magnitudes higher in terms of difficulty than a simple chore. An hour was usually given just for the trip back as jumping in a fatigue state was way too dangerous.
Walking back, we would usually have around the same pace and stride of a normal human's. Well , our stamina recovery would be way different though. With that extra stamina, we even have to sprint while breathlessly tired. At first it felt like hell, but having made it a routine, I quickly. Got used to it after a week. I could remember even just 3 days ago I would be struggling on the way back and tumbling around in the forest. As days went by, the mistakes reduced like mist fading away. Hopefully, today I won't hit a single thing.
As greenery zoomed by my peripherals, the lines in the sky began to blur like water paint, my steps felt heavier as if pressing on to a car pedal made of heavy metal. Ah! Wait! My eyesight was beginning to blur because my body was moving on its own, the rest of me, specifically my mind was busy daydreaming and slacking. Focus! Focus on your surroundings, activate your concentration. Alike car windscreen wipers, the foggy and vague shapes began to gain clarity. The obstacles start to become more defined 3d objects, before I knew it, I was dodging all the plants, bushes and rocks in the way.
What was more amazing was my rotational redirection. Before, I was purely relying on instinct to fight enemies, and the simplest way was to run forward and slash at them. Except that one time with that wind wielding magical girl, for her I had to run around her which caused my speed and power to decreased slightly. Otherwise, I would have outran where I planned to stop and swing my attacks, missing them drastically.
This time was different, with both my mind and body working in tandem, they had synced up to process information instantly. It sounds absurd because a normal person would never experience this, but for a magical girl who increases their strength hundreds of times upon transforming, their body would get used to the speed but their mind would not. As part of the body, the eyes would naturally receive the augmentation necessary to receive information.
That didn't mean the brain could process thoughts at the same speed though, our actions happen much faster as they are now augmented and the magical girl has to train and get used to it. Usually only th outside of the body would receive the magical girl augmentation since it saves magical particles, but if they wanted any magical girl could also reinforce their insides with magical particles. That includes accelerating brain processes to catch up, though that spends exponentially more magical particles than simply reinforcing the skin.
Though it's easy to speed up even with exhaustion, it's incredibly difficult to slow down. So now that I'm less than a kilometre near the end, I'll just curl up and begin to roll around destructively. Hugging around my folded legs tight, my thighs pressed against something soft as my speed began to decline to a halt. Wow, come to think of it I forgot about these. I've just gotten used to them over time, I forgot to appreciate them more. Well, now I know what I'll be doing tonight.
Though I was near the start of 17 years of age before The Great Disaster, the transformation seems to rejuvenate and make my skin supple, almost bouncy even. The muscle mass had reduced, and there was more fat instead in my hips and thighs. My arms retained a similar composition as I wasn't particularly athletic before everything happened.
But.... -looking into the mirror now after a fresh shower and a session of teeth brushing, this body seems to really look good. Well, at least I wouldn't say it's anywhere near bed. If I were to speak with my own taste, then it was quite highly above average. Not that I could become an item with anyone this good looking in the past. Back then... I was truly a loser. Maybe they thought it was funny, I can' t say I'd ever forgive them. But I won't let such thoughts interfere with my life anymore.
I would say, I sure have gotten used to this body. For now, let's practice with a smile. They managed to salvage this single mirror from after The Great Disaster, well they found a lot but installing 1 for every station revealed that it's barely sufficient. Unlike ancient times, I'm sure there are now many brilliant minds with the necessary knowledge to easily reinvent tools and modern conveniences.
Staring straight into the mirror, I looked with upturned eyes as I squeeze out a smile. Un, un, this is a cute smile alright. Unable to hold in my satisfaction, I closed my eyes
From a few metres away, the sound of a cubicle door opens. This was the restroom and showering room, there were 2 rows of cubicles. One with toilets and the other with shower heads. Garion had just finished her own shower and stepped out of the cubicle in her bath slippers. The flopping sound echoed in the ensuing silence.
"Wha-!" (Garion)
"Hyaaan?!"
And I was caught red-handed, practicing to smile and admiring myself in the mirror. My fingers gripped the sink as my back slightly hunched as if I had an obsession with the mirror.
"... I couldn't see what you were doing from here but... I think I can guess from your reaction. That was a cute scream, I'll pretend I didn't see anything. Heheh~" (Garion)
With those last few words, she strode out of the shower room and headed down the hallway to either the meal area or her room. At a lost for words, I could only sheepishly hide my expression as I went to get dinner. The variety of food here is vastly different compared to that in the Eye God sanctuary. For one thing, they have different temperatures and growing seasons. It was another one of those small things that would make one think the war is stupid. If the dispute was solved diplomatically and trade is established, getting some rice even from here wouldn't be a dream anymore.
Rice was one of the things that kept me going right after The Great Disaster. It was a staple part of my meal, accompanying meat with it was simply the most sublime thing to my taste buds. Too bad I suppose, complaining about what I don't have is pointless nowadays. Having a functioning society after that disaster wiped out more than 80% of humanity is a blessing. Though in the sanctuary of the Eye God, there are only around 10000 + magical girls, an overwhelmingly large amount of people managed to survive. To the point that it'd be impossible for all of them to have been saved during that disaster.
They might just have the largest population of normal humans and manpower to work the fields. With people working on food gathering and scavenging it was easier for the rest to work on rebuilding. From what I could see, even this border patrol station is rather primitive. The walls are made of planks and sometimes feel like a small smack would topple the entire building. Furthermore, this was one of the better stations. There were certain stations dysfunctional enough that the magical girl's positioned there needed to build a place of lodging themselves.
For that reason, some older magical girls in the Illnoia administration have experience with logging and processing wood. There were such training sessions dedicated to this, as if we would one day build for this faction...
Finding a seat, I took a piece of hard baked bread and dipped it into the soup before taking a bite. For these kinds of bread, it was better to bite as fast you can with all your strength. That way you wouldn't struggle later when trying to pull it off the remaining bread. This bread was delivered daily and the soup was made with herbs and mushrooms harvested in the nearby forests. The soup tastes like boiled water with grass added to it, but after a long day of training anything would taste good.
There was a common lack of meat in most factions. If there was a faction with plenty of meat, I wouldn't be able to tell. Anyway, there's nobody around to kill livestock and process them, or get the chemicals to preserve them. So meat is currently on short supply, other resources simply took higher priority. Even the Sanctuary only had fish which some wouldn't even consider as meat. It was mostly vegetables, but one didn't need to worry about those when they were there.
"Ah.. Eating already? Gimme a sec, I'll come back after a quick shower and we can eat together." (Myuu)
Her skin drenched in sweat glistened under the light produced by the chimney fire. Some strands of her hair stuck to her skin and clothes, producing a casual atmosphere.
" I'll be waiting... " I softly uttered those words as she had already gone for the shower room.