*
"So... What are you doing here? This place is a desolate land..." (?)
Her cross shaped iris layed in line with my own sight, even with small movements, her fiery red hair fluttered about as if they had wings. Each step caused her metal greeves to clatter, her long sword dissipated back into thin air with soft cinders.
" We are on a school trip! It's a new program! To learn about our landscapes and how they end up after the disaster. What about you?"
A messy excuse at best, but the fact that most of my classmates are around should be able to support this fact. Sweat dripped down the back of my neck as I redirected the question back to her. Come to think of it, I've never asked for her name. The only time I've interacted with her was the first few days of entering the labyrinth. I was brooding over the fact that I was abandoning everything in my normal life to keep up my secret identity of being a magical girl.
The cover up was that I had been scouted by the local government due to my hardwork of transporting materials to other places. I had unexpectedly gotten emotional after that, reminiscing about the one month I've spent with Kyou and Yuuka. Yuuka only grew isolated after that rejection.
She was a childhood friend, and I've stopped holding a grudge over her blatant abandonment in middle school. Those kids found ways, words to make fun of my dream, they sure did enjoy each other's company and laughter at my expense. And Yuuka stopped talking to me for those 3 years, much less stand up for me. Well, they were kids. Even if a bit of trauma and difficulty in socialising arose from that, I couldn't care less about them now.
A proposal in a screwed up timing, my head was too filled with other things to give attention to that. Making a family for stability? Right after the Great Disaster? I'm not going to explain why that's a horrible idea. She grew close to Kyou and was cherry for the small while I was there, but what was in her mind was as indecipherable as before. If I were to give such a chance, I rather restart as friends and build up from there. For now, she's merely an acquaintance.
"I'm patrolling around here. It's the closest territory to the Illnoia administration. Come to think of it, what's your name? I've only seen you that one time when you were crying in the middle of the street." (?)
"In the middle?! Are you a lost child, Kaorin?" (Myuu)
"Hahah.... Well, it was personal. Anyway, my title is Kaorin. I had some eccentric grandparents that changed the family name to something odd, so I'd rather not share that...
Anyway, nice to meet you! What about you?"
"My title is Deadly Ruby, it's a bit embarrassing so just call me Ruby!" (Ruby)
"Nice to meet you, Ruby! Do you want to join us on our trip? We still have until nightfall before we return to camp." (Myuu)
The pitch of her voice was slightly higher than usual, though it is the one that everyone became used to. The relaxed version of her voice is only known to us that shared a room with her at the border patrol station. In a way, her nervousness is helping to mask itself. Before long, Ruby left off with a elated face. If she had wanted to join us, there was no choice but to continue the act. At least then, we could act as decoys. We still had communication devices, the rest had already been advice to stay quiet for 5 seconds when receiving a transmission, unless in an emergency. Now that we've faked a story, it'd be in our interest to inform the rest as soon as possible.
The device for tracking the labyrinth had been hidden inside my clothes when we met Ruby, my second skill had proved even more use than ever, blocking out the beeping sounds from the device. After walking for a couple of minutes, Ruby was finally out of sight.
"Myuu."
"On it, *click* Everyone, we're on a school trip. I repeat, we're on a school trip" (Myuu)
If Ruby had met any of our comrades before the transmission, it'd be far too late as inconsistencies would start showing in our stories. Honestly, we should have thought about this before hand. Just taking the supplies and going in blindly... Yeah, more time should have been used in planning. I guess I was pressured by their expectant gazes back at the station and only bordered to form some countermeasures in the middle of coming here. Closing the distance at a rate faster than sound may not have been a good moment to discuss things.
*Beep beep beep* 3 fast consecutive rings, a transmission was entering our communication devices. Muffled voices emitted out with slight tones of joy.
"We've found it, the Northern labyrinth of the Sanctuary. Flashing a magic beacon 2 times, come here while transformed. Our concealment won't work inside anyway." (Vibell)
***
Gathered at the meeting point, everyone had arrived in the teams they were with. The teams were decided by the people themselves. In A1 was Vila who manipulates fire and Zemi that's a close range weapon type magical girl. Her preferred weapon is a mace. While Vila has a light blue frilly one piece dress with countless small decorations, Zemi contrasted with 2 tan brown cloaks over her shoulders and dark yellow blouse. Her blouse tucked into her darker yellow sweat pants that ended in a black collar around her feet.
In A2 was Rier Heris, Fuller Riva and Cavem Randis. Rier was a brunette that also had a transformation that was focused on her physical abilities. Her main weapon is a pair of durable gauntlets that have a small bit of anti-magical particle properties. Riva was a mid range type magical who could flexibly fulfill all roles. Her powers manifested whips that could extend at will. They also strengthen the attack based on distance covered by the Whip, in exchange for large amounts of magical particles. Randis was a long range support type magical girl, her healing ability is quite lacking when compared to others, but it's faster compared to normal regeneration.
Next in A3 was Garion Freu, Kenzi Fiur and Barius Kleine. They were the usual 3 that grouped together even before being abducted. Garion had mastery over ice, Barius over water and Kenzi had enhanced sense and movement.
Now In B1 was Myuu and I. Myuu's ability was to replicate any living or dying thing. Her personal favourite is the exploding whale corpse. Mine was to manipulate pressure gradients, increasing and decreasing wind at will. I could use it to somewhat move other Substances too, but it's much more weakened and less defined, powers like this that barely fit the base description are often weaker.
In B2 was Kreumier Fiel, Usami Kirin and MiYi. Fiel had mastery over creating soil and rocks out of thin air and shooting them. Their power is quite weak but they could make fortifications if necessary. Kirin's power is simply lightning, there isn't much to it other than that her specially summoned nunchucks can conduct electricity very well. Her passive ability from her combat dress grants her immunity from any damage by volts or amps. MiYi's ability was more odd in that it summoned pistols, she could load them with magic bullets and fire off at speeds significantly higher than snipers or magical girls.
In B3, we have Akiko who uses curses, Rumi which similar to me uses wind, Xin who could create vacuums anywhere she wants, Izumi who summons swords preferably katanas and finally Vibell who has extraordinary concealment abilities.
We would be split into 6 locations and could only help after our own missions are over. The teams were made with our teamwork in mind and killing civilians... Isn't really something I could deal with. I believe Myuu had the strength to do it even if I didn't. But whether we could do it or not didn't matter, other than our targets, I don't think the rest would willingly kill anyone else. Taking a life is too heavy. For god's sake, we're pretty much still kids.
It didn't take long for us to find our targets, infiltrating the buildings themselves was another matter. As expected, they were heavily guarded, even more so than the base we used to come from.
***
Quietly brainstorming in their chair, a woman with straight black hair spins around. She donned a coat as if it was her magical combat dress, stains of light yellow and blue were present all over. It smelled like brand new though it looked otherwise. Under her coat was a black pleated skirt, it was short enough that she didn't feel comfortable unless she wore opaque black leggings. As for her top, it was a simple black blouse.
Her numerous desks lying around were cluttered with countless small gadgets. What purpose they served, even she no longer remembered. How long had she last went out? Her name tag read Shirley, at least that much she knew. She remembered her own background and her job, but not where the exit was or the warmth of natural light. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say she only went out every few years. Everything had been meticulously provided so she didn't need to ever set foot outside her working grounds. Whether it was a workshop or a laboratory depended on her mood.
Even if the air was stale beyond humanely tolerable, even if all that she could see was the light of ceiling lights, she didn't mind.
It was because she was so used to the stale air that she could detect when it moved. She looked over her work desks once more, understanding filled her expression. They would all be gone one day anyway, what she needed to do now was clear, and she didn't need any of those tools. She didn't even need to stand up, patience was nothing to someone who stayed in her workplace for a few years straight. It was practically her own kingdom inside. If the intruders could traverse the contraptions and traps set all over, she would welcome them to fight her. It was what it meant 'to do her job', it was part of her job description.
Everyone is a magical girl.
Entering the room ragged and out of breath was two... Young teens? What are they doing here. Well, it's clear they made it through all the death traps, anyone that somewhat knew me would wait for me to come out instead. It was more convenient that way. The traps are for protecting my research materials, not my life anyway. It was already a labyrinth by itself. Standing up, my ability activates. [Well of worth], syringes gather up absurd amounts of kinetic energy in an instant under my lab coat, before shooting at the intruders.
As expected, it caused a large explosion with the door as it's centre and the radius of it almost reached the centre of the room which I sat at. All my equipment near the door is ruined, those can be replaced anyway.
*Snap!* A clear as bells clasping sound echoed from under the smoke. Looking down, deep green tendrils with sharp cone like spikes had wrapped themselves around her shins and ankles. [Well of worth], the tendrils seperated cleanly at the base as if cut by thin air, the rest of it that was attached to her leg withered and fell off. It shocked the 2 girls caught in the middle of the syringe explosions, which made it even, when Shirley thought they wouldn't survive.
"Two can play at that game." (Shirley)
Arising out of the ground, chains of uneven grey hues constricted their legs in an instant, with the tip of the chain digging into their flesh. Soft screams escape their silent glares as they gazed fixedly at her. Just like their vines though, these chains formed from the ground floor is just as fragile. In a similar fashion, the chains got cut at the base as if by thin air, and the rest dissipated into powder.
Unleashing a large blast of air, the one with dark grey hair punched into the air facing Shirley. Her fist twisted into the air as if the embedding the drilling motion into her attack. Forming a wall out of the ground material, the wall destructive lay burst open leaving it's silhouette on the ground. Shirley was gone.