*(Barius)
Where was she taking this? Before I saw it, she had already taken control of the conversation. She gave a smile, one that wasn't too extravagant or too underwhelming.
" I don't know what you're hiding, but I think I can at least tell this much. After all, I've been working hard for you this whole time, studying your expressions sometimes....
I noticed that you aren't as expressive as the others, I thought it was because you were an introvert...
You know, if you have any problems you should tell me. You were always here for me, so I wanted to pay you back. I even went the extra mile to get good at those quizzes so you could rely on me if you wanted to get better... Though you were always well off without me, scoring second place. "(Ikari)
... Again, another person had expected nothing of me. The last person I wanted too... She thought she could help me? When she was causing my struggle this whole time? What kind of sick joke... She... Did it out of good will... What am I suppose to do with this information? I can't do anything... No, I still have that wish. It was my wish from the very start, a childish dream. I wish to be perfect.
With what she has told me, It was like getting reset back to square one. So I must simply trudge on. I cannot give up. I will continue on my path to becoming perfect. This time, I will keeping pushing through with no end in sight. A completely perfect organism is but a mere myth. So I will make it true, I will make it real with my own hands. No one would do it for me, so I have to do it myself. It was a mere fantasy before, but now that I have magic it may be possible.
I will tear down everything in my way.
***(Test)
The demon panthers seem to roam around in packs, making it easy to fight 2 of them off at the same time. Of course that depends on whether the magical girl is strong enough to face such packs. They aren't all that common in the morning, apparently they have 2 skills, a rarity among the low class monsters. For monsters, the low class referred to monsters that have a danger level of E to D grade, mid or middle would be C to B and high would be A.
Information regarding S grades, whether it be a magical girl or a monster has been hidden from the general public, even most magical girls do not know if they exist or not. Unless one sees them with their own eyes, it exists as a rumour. It's one of those weird laws that happens, perhaps a powerful magical girl casted a skill on the whole of humanity, to fog up their mind when it comes to S grade matters. It wouldn't really be surprising. The only way we knew how an S-grade stat was equated to 1 000 000 times human capability was through guide-san who turned out to be the governor of this labyrinth, Kanou. She didn't give much of a name other than that one word, so she's probably hiding her identity like the rest.
It's basically taboo to reveal their real name. Some magical girls get by by only changing their name up a bit. By the way, this phenomenon that muddle a person's mind is called the law of magical girls. It only happens when a person tries to think about things related to magical girls. Identities are firmly hidden unless the magical girl blatantly tells everyone their name. S-grade related matters are also hidden unless divulged by someone knowledgeable or an S-grade person themselves.
In other words, these monsters seem weak at first glance as D-grades. But the fact that they were chosen as tests for an important license hid something. There must have been a reason.
[Phantom of pain past the exterior]
... I haven't been given any information on this monster. Though it didn't matter much to me. I am Barius kleine, I am suppose to be perfect. So I'll have to find this information out myself even if I have to rip out the demon panther's tongue. I doubt it could talk, and I doubt it could kill me as long as I stayed cautious.
Apparently hair colour for magical girls were a symbol of purity for some. For the purity of what? Purity of their power? Purity of their mana? Well my hair was dead set in the middle of the spectrum. It's neither pure black nor pure white. Blacks were the most common, so there's a higher chance of a stronger individual appearing among them. And pure white was the rarest, said to be strong by virtue of their hair colour. I'll have to prove all of them wrong. I'll refine myself. I have to push through.
Everyone had split off into multiple directions. With experienced control, we all could radiate out magical particles and receive the ones that bounce back, like a radar. This method of tracking sends out an extremely thin amount of magical particles, which would pass through everything unless it came in contact with more magical particles. It required training to interpret the readings and send the magical particles out correctly.
It was a vague sense of tracking, but unless one had a skill suited to it, this was the most reliable method at our disposal. Before long, I had covered around 70 kilometres and found the closest pack of demon panthers.
In an instant, a dark cloud engulfed everything. For an instant, I could see nothing but purplish black, as if solid iodine had filled the air. I first checked for breathability. When one sees a coloured gas filling their vision, they should first check if it was a form of attack. Many magic skills give off coloured clouds, some can kill and some are mere aftereffects of other phenomenon.
Even if magical girls could last longer without oxygen, one must make sure of their own wellbeing. Good, it was just a smoke screen. It disappeared in a second, the bright sun peaked through the opening before swallowing everything in my surroundings. It was just as bright as before, as if nothing had happened... Was the ground always this close to me?...
What was I doing?
***(Kaorin)
... Everyone had jumped off into different directions even though it wasn't disallowed to help each other. Are they seriously not scared of dying? The test definitely involves the monster's skill. Perhaps I'll just get hit once and get it over with.
Unlike most others, my skill involved manipulating the concentration gradients of substamces. After that, I had gained complete control over the flow of substances in the form of my second skill. It was hard to see only the effects and decipher what the skill actually did. For a moment I thought my second skill stopped time in a limited area, I mean how cool would that be? Everyone had experienced it right? Fantasising about stopping time and then having fun...
Maybe people would be thinking bout a different kind of fun. Anyway, with these skills at my disposal, one had to first be able to read the current existing gradients or types of substances. That's where passives skills come in. Passive skills are just like normal skills, but they mainly help you with using your normal skills. For example, Barius manipulates water with her first skill. So her passive grants her perfect vision no matter what is in the air blocking her view, whether it was water or sand. In other words, her passive is clairvoyance.
My passive allowed me to accurately read and comprehend the flow of substances. All I need to do was to cover everything with the magical particles I control. While the others used the usual tracking method which relied on bouncing magical particles, I could endlessly expand my tracking range instead of waiting for the magical particles to bounce back. Their way was similar to echolocation, so their range was far more limited than mine.
"Are you sure you want expend that much magical particles before you fight them?" (Jein sensei)
That was right, I stood still right at the very meeting point. Continously using my skill from here.
"Sensei, how long do you think I've been fighting with a smaller 'well' than this? Even then, I can recover all of it. It's a passive, it's not meant to cost a lot, in fact it recovers almost everything it expends."
".... My... How you've grown. Then I'll leave you to it. See you later in the evening, when everyone comes back to report. "(Jein sensei)
... Found them. I could roughly recognise everything as its own substance and move it. Even myself.
As long as it's matter. The only exception was magical particles, it has no mass. I don't know if it has been classified, but since I knew it existed in the form of particles I could move it around... All magical girls could move it around though my skill will give priority control to me. It was a simple matter to even shoot myself forward and ignore air resistance.
*Booom!*
The landing still needs work though. I kicked up a large storm of sand. With my level of control now, I could easily shift the sand away to make way for myself. From the side of the sand storm, a dark cloud comes to swallow everything. Perhaps I should just leave the sand flying... No, I should use it. I stop a layer of air in front of me with my second skill, forming a solid barrier. Then I accelerate the sand in the air to an unnatural amount. The panthers will have to risk walking into a blender to get to me. Now let's see, what are the contents of this test...
..... What... happen? This... Is school?... That's right. Middle school second year. How could I forget. What was I doing until now? I have this vague sense that something important was happening... My name is Kaoru... Okay so my memories aren't completely gone.
This place... Tch, I'll have to see them again. After getting punched at places people cannot see so many times, I've just about had it... Did I always have this straightforward of a personality? That's right... My body is weak, how could I fight them off. Amanogawa kaito, he's the source of all my pain.
I walk along the school hallways, students were going around while talking to their friends. For some reason something felt amiss....! There's something hard in my pocket...? Ah, now I remember. Of course. I finally remember what I needed to do. After all, I've been waiting for a year to do this. It was less of preparing for a year, and more like waiting for a year. I was waiting to see how long it would take me to endure, how long it would take for me to take action. Yes, I've just had about enough. It was lunchtime now, they went to the canteen like normal students. But they'll demand that I pay for their lunch later.
It's not like it was a big surprise, even if no one defended me they knew Amanogawa and his crew weren't good people. They simply didn't want to become a victim like me. Cowards the lot of them, my resentment is not so easily quelled. For not trying to help for the past year, I also reserved some grudge for the rest of them. But for the first step, Amanogawa will be my target. Their wallets are with them so they could buy lunch, so I'll damage everything else instead. I first picked up one of their lackeys bags and brought it to the toilet. I'll start a fire with a lighter I stole from my father. I'll start the fire inside the bag, and make sure it was near to the sides so the books wouldn't put it out.
Day 1, Kita Jouichi's bag was found burnt up in the boys restroom. I acted as per normal, though I hid my money somewhere else. Showing them my empty wallet, Amanogawa became more mad than he had ever been. Apparently he was depending on the money to buy something he really wanted, having saved for a while .
It was the next day, it was easy to endure my hunger if it meant I could protect my money from being taken by Amanogawa. I burnt another lackeys back. It was not like nobody was in the classroom, a lot of them saw me. And just as they didn't report the bullying, they were also apathetic to my revenge.
Day 2, Ishizawa Gaen's bag was found burnt up. They started to suspect me. I wrote it off as being unaware of it. They've been at it for a whole year, they couldn't possible suspect timid old me.
Day 3, it was Maeshima Reiji and Amanogawa's turn. Their suspicion was extremely high after the second bag was burnt with all their belongings ruined. So I had to finish the last 2 in the same day. They came back from lunch pissed. I was told to follow them outside the classroom, brought to an inconspicuous location.
It was finally the perfect time. This was why I had this object in my pocket.