*
***(Kreumier Fiel)
It was an odd task, to kill only 2 demon panthers when they gathered in large packs. I'm not sure if the others took note of this detail, but I find it extremely strange. My mode of transport was to ride a flying rock. I had plain black hair that didn't stand out in anyway and a white dress with brown highlights with loose cloth hanging around my waist.
[Geoprincess], it was an odd name for a skill but quite straightforward rather than the skills of others. There was nothing much to note, it could move rocks and shoot rocks. If I tried hard enough, it could form rocks in thin air above the opponent's head to strike them down lika meteor. As such, I killed all the demon panthers from a distance. A purple fog attempted to reach me, but I was too high in the air and it dissipated before anything happened.
Unlike anyone else, I kept everything. I awakened as a magical girl before The Great Disaster after all. It was a simple job to reinforce my house and keep my family safe. Even now, they are living peaceful lives where their needs are mostly subsidised by the government. Perhaps they think my power was worth that much, that they would provide for my family just to have it. It was unexpectedly humane, usually in stories they would find a way to rip it out of my body and ruin my life in the process. I assumed they would dissect me.
I was wrong. A new government had taken over the country, no... The continent. Each continent showed up with a major faction in an instant, it was the world of magical girls coming out of the hiding. The god magical girls were assumed to have lived centuries, maybe even millenias. They held unimaginable power but something stopped them from taking over the world.
I lived a mostly peaceful life. I didn't have any siblings and my parents would always dote on me. I was their only child after all. I go to school, have some good friends. I went to placed with them, enjoyed my youth. I also got to fight some monsters when they appear, I had the powers to do it so I did. The monsters were mean, brutal. I've seen them cause car accidents and nobody bats an eye. Normal people can't see them, they treated them as misfortune or tragedy.
Don't misunderstand, my house still took copious amounts of damage, the part that I saved was practically only the interior. It only looked slightly less ruined than the other houses with its walls not having comically large holes in them. Regardless, it still held influence. My power did. They decided to rebuild society starting from my house, fixing the exterior before moving to the next house. I used my power to help out. After the disaster, my existence wasn't really a secret anymore. It wasn't a common sight, but now everyone knew magical girls exist.
Even after they knew, they treated me the same as before. I love my family, so I worked hard to grow stronger. So I could be someone they could depend on. There was nothing more, nothing less. I gained some great friends. I believe they'll all pass the test with ease, that's how great they are.
***(V)
When did it all start? There was not many people in kindergarten. So it must have been elementary school. No matter what I did, I blended into the background. It was not the fact that no one noticed me, but that they didn't pay any special attention to me. I didn't have this problem before. Everyone has had their special moment right? When someone reveals that they had a hidden talent, or they unexpectedly scored well in a test, or maybe they met someone famous and took a picture with them. For everyone, they manage to gather everyone's attention once in their life, they manage to feel special.
For myself, I never got to experience such a thing. I was forever in the background, in the worst way possible. People acknowledge my existence but not anymore than that. They see me, but they do not get much of an impression of me. What I did or was doing never mattered to anyone, not even my parents or my siblings. A big brother and a younger sister, they outshine me in every way, so I experienced something similar at home. Come to think of it, my younger sister was born when I first got into elementary school.
It was natural, taking care of a baby was hard and I wasn't about to get jealous over such an overdependent creature. I thought that if I waited patiently, I would eventually get my turn. 6 years passed by, I still haven't manage to achieve anything. My little sister has grown up, she still receives most of the attention of my parents, while my brother receives praise from time to time. Nothing changed, I was still as much of a loser as I was before.
What, then? What could I possibly do? I had no talent. I didn't excel in anything at all, a complete mob character. I descended into the world of otakus to pass the time, even there I didn't really belong anywhere. I didn't find any shows I could talk so passionately about, I didn't people who I could call good friends. They were all strangers, most of them just like me, a loser.
Do you know what is the statement I've heard the most in my life? 'Why can't you be like X?' maybe I was a disappointment to everyone around me. I really tried, I really did. But no one believes me, they judged me based on my appearance. Then they decided I didn't work hard enough, finally they isolate me as a person not worthy to ever talk about. I was painfully average, I want to do better. Though I've mostly lost that drive to do better. I've mostly abandoned any will to improve or standout.
The illusion I was shown. It didn't hurt me much since I've experienced it countless times. Getting ignored, getting compared to someone better, getting insulted for my incompetence, getting brushed off as a background character, getting absolutely nothing. This pain, I've grown numb to it. I've struggled and cried over it so much that I've become used to it. This illusion... Is a joke. You're telling me this is my worst memory? You're saying my mum telling me my sister is better than me in every way would hurt my feelings? Even if my little sister was staring at me in pity, even if my older brother is grimacing on my behalf. Even if my pride was trampled and I was humiliated, there was nothing left to hurt me with.
Unexpectedly, I was thankful to The Great Disaster. I know if I ever told anyone that, I'd get slapped. Even so, it brought me out of the hell that was normal life. It brought forward the existence of magic and added a little spice into my life. I pushed my mother into a crack, thinking I would be satisfied when she dies. I didn't, I felt nothing. My mother was not the only one that shunned me, everyone did. But after eliminating her, I felt that revenge would make me feel nothing. It was pointless. These people have done their damage, killing them would not unhurt my past self.
So as she fell to her doom with tears in her eyes, I only stared back with an apathetic poker face. If anyone was watching, it would have looked really weird. Even in the labyrinth, when I was brought to be trained as a magical girl, everyone kept to themselves. No one really wanted to stand out. They were probably mourning from having lost someone dear to themselves. It was the first time in a very long while, I felt shame. I was ashamed that while they were all feeling sad, I was happy. They had a melancholic atmosphere draped around them, as if to say not to come close or they will bite, possibly kill you.
Unlike a normal classroom, it was frighteningly quiet. The silence was palpable and everyone kept to themselves. Well, everyone except for Kaorin. Perhaps she was naive, or she coped a little differently from the others. Her cheeriness was a bit awkward in nature, sometimes even prying too much into someone else's past. Though she somehow managed to turn it around. It first spread to Myuu, then Barius and her 2 friends.
Then with the volleyball session, everyone became more cheerful and hopeful. They were now more comfortable with talking to each other. More people made friends and it started to look like a normal classroom. The teacher seemed a little annoyed by all the noise, but she also seemed a little relief that people could continue their usual lives. There were some shenanigans with being kidnapped and all, but we pulled through. Even I had begun to warm up to others, especially my roommates.
Finally, we were about to fight general Frena. Honestly, who wouldn't want to run from that monster. She was a nightmare, revealing that she had an infinite amount of magical particles. She was heavily debuffed, and her reaction speed slowed yet she managed to come out of everyone's special attack unscathed. Some of my friend had awakened their second skill as if it was the right moment in a story to pull off a miracle and win. Yet it was a tie at most, her defences completely held off everyone's attacks. They were formidable enough to disintegrate and melt the ground underneath the general, yet she stood there without a single scratch. She was only slightly mad as she was that disappointed in how little our attacks did.
It was before we fought Frena, I had gained a bit of myself back. Even though Kaorin said she needed everyone and not just me, her words still shone brightly in my heart. I was needed. I was important to someone. I need to live up to their expectations to return that importance they placed in me. It made me feel significant, as if I was a part of something. It was a first for me. I realise then, if I can't get an easy life, I'll at least work hard so someone would need me.
Was all of that an illusion? A multilayered one? Perhaps my own skill had something to do with it, but I didn't think such weak monsters could pull off such a thing. So the illusion of my past progressed, and it manually brought me back to the present in the end. Which allowed me to remember I was in a test. How convoluted... It eventually unraveled its own foundation and set me free.
Not that I needed it, judging from how the air has shifted drastically, I've already been attacked and they failed. Their claws couldn't go through my magical girl combat dress, or passive magic barrier. As magical girl combat dresses don't naturally cover every portion of skin, spots where the skin are exposed are usually covered by a magic barrier to protect them.
My first passive skill from my combat dress, it forms a dagger out of magical particles in thin air. It was as tough as steel normally, but if I injected more magical particles into it, it would become stronger. It was similar to Izumi's katana in that sense, though the efficiency rate is extremely low when compared. To put it simply, her katana is stronger and bigger, and it's fueled by her skill instead of a passive. Unlike skills that produce a very strong phenomena, passives only serve to aid the usage of skills.
A difference between Izumi's katana and my daggers, mostly a design influenced difference, my daggers can shoot at targets from a distance. Her katana was naturally curved to a single side, which would turn it into a boomerang. It was also much heavier and its shape doesn't support it too well.
A quick swipe with my right arm and multiple daggers form in the air before shooting off at high velocity. The blade slips through their flesh while the guard slaps against the surface of their skin, causing a ripple of big meat collision sounds. The force is transferred into the insides of the monsters by the extra magical particles packed in the daggers. When enough magical particles are used to build and reinforce the dagger, the excess gets stored as energy. To put it another way, the daggers can turn into bombs.
Maybe it wasn't the test that was too easy, but us who have trained an unnatural amount in the administration territory. Facing Frena was definitely too much, thank god she spared our lives. She could fight the dragon god and become the ruler of the Illnoian administration faction. I guess her passive retirement mindset was what saved us in the end. I wonder if we had met her in another time, would we have survived?