*(Kaorin)
Was this the test?
Yes.
Then why am I still here?
You are still under their magic, despite being completely safe. Do you think your friends share the same capabilities?
I can only put my faith in their ability.
Let's just finish the test then! Right, Kaorin?
Hmpf, for a doppelganger you sure have a big mouth. That's fine, let's..... I'll get on with it.
.... Was that a daydream? Where was I? Oh yes, they've brought me to a desolate part of the staircase in school. His arms were already outstretched, his palms aiming for my neck. I took it out. The object in my pocket. It isn't hard with how focused on my neck he was, I press the sharp object firmly into his body. It was a simple pen knife, the uniform may be to much for the knife's unsharpened edge, but as long as it got into his skin it would be fine to leave it stuck in his uniform.
"Ugh!?!!..." (Amanogawa)
His palms clutch the area around the pen knife lodged in his stomach, his glare pointed deeply into my own gaze. Now I perfectly remember. I stopped going to middle school in the third year and became a shut in, not because of a whim. It was because I stabbed a fellow student and hospitalised him, and simply didn't want to face anyone in school. I couldn't face them. I stabbed a person, I became a worse person. Some people may not see it that way, but I felt sick to my stomach.
My mind felt nauseated, my temples perspire excessively, my fingers trembled. But that was only because I stabbed a fellow student, if someone were to ask if I regretted it, I would unhesitatingly say no. After enduring his mistreatment for a year, it is time I stop doubting. It was time I stop making muddled choices based on every other factor. Finally, it was time I stop doing things I'll regret.
In an instant, my surroundings had changed back to the sandstorm. My memories flow back into my head as if someone inserted a disc. The pungent stench of blood filled the air. It looks like while I was under that illusion, at least 2 of the panthers had jumped into the storm and killed themselves. Too bad the storm grounded up their horns, they were like unnaturally large purple pumas with horns sticking out of the back of their ears.
I've last the test, so it should be fine to massacre the rest right?
It was an even simpler job to stop the movement of sand in the middle of the air, the storm cleared up and I was able to see the demon panthers clearly. Their speed was incomparable to mine. Taking a sidestep, I managed to land next to one before lifting my right leg. I slammed the right leg down, using my skills to boost my power.
*Bang!*
The beast struck the ground immediately, it's back split open as shock waves reverberated through the ground. I sever the horns with wind blades and punch out the next one trying to pounce on me. A weird sound like a drum of meat getting hit echoed out, my fist smoothly went through the beast. The strength of my punch turned a chunk of its flesh into a red vapour, with air and blood surrounding my fist instead of its flesh. The gaping hole in the beast leaked an immense amount of blood before its body began to dissipate into magical particles.
Seeing as its comrades were obliterated in an instant, the rest took some steps back while keeping an eye on me. Not long after, they ran away seeing as I did nothing more. They were intelligent enough to form a pack, that meant that they had some understanding of strength as they are stronger together. Their survival instincts kicked in, and it was screaming 'run' I suppose.
***(Barius)
"Seriously? You got second place again? Dang, that's some bad luck there. Well, you've been cursed academically with misfortune since young. It can't be help." (Dad)
.... Even though I'm trying so hard... No one really expects anything. Why? Just because I didn't do well the most, doesn't mean I'm not good enough. Why? Why must everyone forsake all my hard work and call it misfortune? WHY?!?? WHY DOES IKARI GET ALL THE RECOGNITION INSTEAD!!
Haa~ Haa~, damn I let the heat get to my head. I can understand it very well. I can understand my own mind the most. I truly treasured her as a friend, yet I cannot let go of this resentment. Just what should I do with these feelings of mine? I hid them. I channeled them into my own motivation to do better, to be perfect. I progressed greatly in middle school and did just that in highschool. Unfortunately, no one ever becomes satisfied.
Unlike with Ikari who I've cut ties with after kindergarten, I never receive the praise that I want. I only get asked of to do more and more. Screw their shitty expectations. It's so difficult to say I'm working hard for myself! So infuriatingly hard that people react with "of course" or "this is expected" and give all the credit to my parents, saying their expectations are what actually drive me. Even thinking about it now, my blood boils. My blood boils, my mind starts searing, my body begins to perspire and my knuckles tighten into a pearly white.
"Fuu~" Take a deep breath. Their illusions of the past are quite incomplete. Despite my memories being gone I could feel magical particles in the air, and when I focused on that sensation of feeling magical particles, most of my memories had returned. I just need to deviate from the scrypt or eliminate. Only someone perfect like me could realise something like this. Yes, I have to be perfect. Maybe one day I'll meet Ikari, then I'll finally thank her.
Black smoke engulfs everything before dissipating to reveal a familiar landscape. A desert as far as the eye could see and a blinding sun that beat heat into her flesh. She had travelled quite a distance to find this nest.
... They didn't attack while I was under an illusion. I could feel some moisture in the air, it's quite humid. Did I defeat them before the illusion started? No, there are scratch marks here and there in my magical combat dress. A thin white jacket protects my back while a deep blue blouse with frills covering the chest kept my torso safe. The blouse was sleeveless so my arms and shoulder were covered by my jacket. I wore a short black pleated skirt decorated by a sapphire blue gem shaped like a tear drop at the side. Skin fitting black thigh highs ending in a V-shape kept my legs from getting cold, ending in black low heeled shoes.
No wonder these were the subjects of our test, it was indeed quite practical. One had to either deploy an incredible barrier, or simply endure these demon panther attacks with their bare skin. Their physical stats are only around D-grade while their magical stats 'well' and 'will' are around high C to low B. The test was to break out of their illusion and be able to endure D-grade attacks without a scratch. It was quite practical as it whittled down those who can not survive D-grade level attacks. Perhaps those who fail are now dead, or they get rescued and sent back to normal life.
If they can't survive these guys, they won't be able to survive the magical world anyway. Too many magical girls, maybe because some of them are teens, are quite trigger happy with their skills. Skills are devastating, they are innate magic abilities that show up in magical girls. Just like how the transformation magic circle is inside the body, skills also formed inside the body of magical girls and take time to be discovered before usage.
It was like how life first form on earth, the fundamental elements build compounds, then amino acids and proteins, and finally they build life. Skills and magical girls are much the same way, but with magic. The magical particles in the air happen to form symbols and glyphs with meaning, then these symbols join together to create a magic phenomenon. Due to the complex nature of DNA, magic evolved alongside it to build magical circles inside humans, awakening magical girls and their skills. Similar to genes, not everyone had the same one, and most don't even have the ability to become a magical girl.
In any case, these skills can be as complex or even more so than DNA. As an example, the god magical girls. They were born with skills that had power beyond most people's imagination.
[First step to perfection], it summons and controls water, the source of all life. Being able to manipulated around 55% of the human body will surely bring me closer to my goal. The summoned water turned into the shape of hands and picked up the demon panthers like toys, before throwing them away. They were thrown with enough force for their organs to get crush, it was a massacre.
***(M)
It was nearly dark outside, the evening was closing and the sun had almost finish setting. Usually the surroundings would get dyed in a dewy golden by dusk, but the city wasn't so fortunate. In exchange, white lights and advertisements had littered the city. That was when it happened. I've been living a completely normal life, how could anyone forsee such an awful disaster? The Great Disaster. Naturally, my body froze in fear unable to know how to react. This was unprecedented carnage, an unnatural phenomenon. No similar disaster has struck and wiped out humanity by this much before.
Black tendrils with widths the size of a car expanded into the air, outstretched as if to spread despair with its appearance to as far as possible. It made no sense. It skewered decades old buildings as if to scoff at humanity for building such things, and it brought world wide destruction beyond anyone's control. My father was at work that day, he had texted my mother to say he was coming back home late. There was nothing notable about myself. I had no club or close friends in high-school, so I returned home earlier than others.
My mother had gained a fear, a trauma. At first she was unable to sleep or eat, it went in for a week and I had to be the one to take care of her since dad wasn't around. We miraculously survived, mother had passed out before a magical girl brought us to a shelter. Of course she was unable to believe her own eyes at first, when magical girls turned out to be real. It was a surreal sight to see teen girls fighting gruesome monsters and carrying survivors on their back.
It's no secret that they also overworked themselves to find more survivors. That meant that the event was also unnatural for the magical girl's themselves. They also had no way to reverse everything that happened. The perpetrator if there even was one, is an enigma.
For everyone, the disaster was a huge shock. It took away roughly 80% of humanity at a glance. And for my mother, it was the biggest shock. As if our daily life had been a lie. And Father never returned. We knew he was dead, but who could face such a cruel truth? In the end, all I can do now is to move forward. I will move forward and I will protect the current friends I have.
The purplish black fogs cover my sight before fading away into nothingness. Perhaps I've finished the test, time to clean up this nest.
Vines grew out of the ground before wrapping around some demon panthers. Some of the vines had wrapped around so tightly the demon panthers split into 2. Others were suffocated and some had been penetrated by the vines. Lately, I realised I could arrange the spikes on the vines, so I made one with some on the tip to form a drill.
Maybe I should head back. I've finished the test and need some rest. They'll announce the results later anyway. I'm sure the rest are waiting for me right now. I can't wait to see Kaorin.