*
There was white everywhere, like a realm of emptiness. Nothing but light existed there, oh, and also the 3 A-grade magical girls.
"Two on one huh. For A-grades like us it's a massive waste of tactical force, but I don't suppose it's the same for your faction." (Friedra)
"Looks like you understand. Die." (?)
Her thick grey coat jacket were like Iron walls that blocked off something beyond, something dangerous. The gold necklaces at her wrist, neck and ankles begin to rotate at high speeds, her button shirt shook in the violent breeze resulting from her power welling up. The black collar of the shirt trembled upwards as if there was wind blowing from below, it also blew her shirt upwards which was too short to cover her stomach. Her coat sleeves ended at the elbow, her arms crossed with dignity.
Her golden brown hair fluttered with an odd intensity, her dark navy jeans kept itself in place though. In a second, it seemed like the ceiling crashed down onto Friedra. A static light different from the one that filled the realm had impacted Friedra's body.
"Final skill, [Dream upon field]" (Friedra)
She had a long black coat that one could say it fits the detectives of old novels. Her dark green hair and black military hat fit splendidly well together, as if she was born for such a look. Her medals shone brightly over her coat, her dark green shirt standing out over the rest of her costume's colours. Her navy jeans were decorated with armour plates, greaves and metallic boots.
She was in an oblivion magia, the highest known magical technique to magical girls. Starting from an A-grade well, magical girls can master a special way of manipulating magical particles. Magical particles are the building blocks of the universe, but how did they form the universe? When one can control a large enough quantity of magical particles and condense them together, they gain a new inherent property.
You could say they begin to manifest their own time and space, do it enough to cover an entire room, an entire street or an entire building, and that is what Oblivion magia is. A technique only available to those with enough magical particles, a technique that creates an entire dimension for their users. Since the dimension is made entirely of their own technique and control, they are able to attack from anywhere they want.
Of course that meant that there were quite a few workarounds to this move, many in fact. It's easy to escape but not easy to survive. Seemingly from every direction possible, a wave of electricity shot at Friedra. There was no way to dodge it. In the actual world it'd be difficult to shoot lightning from every direction, it requires additional concentration to shoot from more than 1 direction and enough speed to catch the opponent off guard. Here in the user's exclusive realm, it became child's play to unleash such attacks. That was the strength of Oblivion magia.
Yet it did nothing. Friedra was completely unharmed. There was no need to even dodge it, she stood still and sat through the brunt of it. Her expression not changing even once. As if having seen a ghost, one of the magical girl's dropped their jaw.
"Im... Impossible. How are you unaffected... Even if you became intangible it should still destroy your soul... "(?)
The blonde girl spoke, it was supposedly her attack and her oblivion magia.
"Looks like you guys don't have all the information after all... Hehe. Well, even if you didn't you guys are too weak to do anything anyway. Did your superiors sacrificed you for information? " (Friedra)
A soft whisper resounded across the white space, a small albeit solid cut appears on Friedra's waist. She looks at the dark red twintailed girl, in her hands were 2 large blades roughly the length of her body. Her movements were swift, almost undiscernable from blank air. It must have been one of her skills, perhaps she was able to choose what she could cut and simply damaged Friedra based on that.
"... That's where I come in. In case you had any kind of evasion skill that would somehow bypass Clara's attacks, I will cut you down. 32nd Army's strongest, Velia neylander ristia." (Velia)
".... I see you are on the verge of becoming an S-grade. "(Friedra)
For the first time, Velia felt unsure about her mission. It was a tiny small tinge that even she herself almost didn't notice in but a single moment. Her line of thought trailed before she corrected it immediately. 'How did the enemy know about that? Not even Clara who I've worked with a while knew, not anyone else but me.' In the end she concluded that the enemy may have a better intelligence department than she thought. It would be far more likely than... Friedra being the same as her.
Friedra summoned a single firearm, a 3 metre sniper with a 2 metre long bayonet. It's use was clear for everyone to see. Despite it not being a traditional sword or blade weapon, it was used as such. The scope was not on the rifle but on her eye, it was like a 4 sided star with a monocle for the centre. It had a vague white edge that was so thin that it might not exist. She fired the weapon as its barrel pointed at Velia's head from an incredibly short distance, before swinging it at her, revealing a chain extension around its stock. The chain extension allowed her to swing the rifle at her enemies like a sickle on a long chain.
Followed by the sniper shot that she couldn't follow with her eyes, a physical blade was heading for her neck. Velia swings down her blade once, the bullet got split in half and deflected at the same time, while rifle struck the ground from the impact. [To reach hope, grasp despair]. She can designate anything as a target and her blade will cut it down, even if that target is 'things that will harm me'.
"Heh, running out of options?" (Velia)
"No, I still have one more skill. Even if you can cut precisely what you want, it has to be physically possible right? The speed may make it look limitless, but that was for only one bullet." (Friedra)
"What do you think I'm here for? I can block anything you have up your sleeve. It's your second skill you have left right? The one that summons missiles and artillery shells without summoning any actual tanks or weapons that shoot these things." (Clara)
" Half and half. You're forgetting nukes. " (Friedra)
Without a moment later, a shock wave passed through the entire realm. It was a tiny Oblivion magia by an A grade magical girl after all, so it even concentrated the power of the nuke. Even though the realm was roughly 200 metres by 200 metres, that was plenty space for fighting but not for avoiding nukes. With her third skill, Friedra came to surpass space and existed in a different space entirely. Yes, she was back in the real world the whole time, filing her paperwork in her office. It was not teleport action, but a means of existing in 2 spaces simultaneously.
When the skill is activated, things in the first location where the enemies are cannot affect her body there, it was like a projection of sorts. She can then choose any other location to be at, but both do not interact with anything physical unless they put magical particles in their body. The magical particles can the qualities of a solid and become her pseudo hands, like a puppet. Like an ethereal dream, she stopped existing normally in one location. In essence she becomes a ghost that can multiply in other places as much as she has magical particles to maintain her skill.
Velia was completely unscathed, Clara had activated her third skill and turned into a sentient form of pure energy, forming a barrier to protect Velia. That is not to say Clara went out unscathed as well, she had to use magical particles to constantly regenerate her body from the vaporising heat of the nuke. She also needed to block out the radiation. Overall, her well had gotten drain by a large chunk.
Of course, Friedra's consciousness was still there to watch all of it even if her body couldn't interact with much.
"Hmmm, how about 2 more?" (Friedra)
There was no delay, she was already prepared to use her skill before she spoke. 2 more ignitions, their sound beyond deafening and comprehension at the epicentre. Only raw unadulterated destruction, the amount of heat was so high it produced plasma. But all of that was readily deflected. It was like a simple flick of the wrist for Clara. Clara manipulated electricity, she had used a lot of her magical particles to form a barrier of electrons but keeping it up was completely easier than setting it up. Maintaining her barrier didn't cost much at all, she could keep it up for a long time while suffering no damage at all due to it's nature.
It was thin, completely invisible, yet it effectively repelled everything sent in it's way. The more magical particles Clara packed into the barrier, the more it's repelling property was enhanced.
******
... I was a boring person. I picked things I could do and stuck with all the things 'normal people' can do. Never venturing outside of this tiny shell of mine. But you know what? I was happy in these brief moments. Even if I didn't accomplish anything that stood out, I was enjoying my 'proper' school life to its fullest. I became a student council leader, or president or however other people call it. It gave me lots and lots of responsibility and took away so much of my time.
It was fulfilling but stiff. I had a team to work with, planning for school events, class events and inspecting the school budget. There were other more trivial tasks, pushed to me by my classmates and teachers because I was 'reliable'...
My home was not such a warm place. My mother had gotten into gambling so I left with my father. But even the stress was getting to him. He could hide it as much as he wants, but there were traces. White traces. He was not doing well. So I worked my hardest. I got good grades, achievements, anything a parent could ask for but money.
"UGHFH?!!" (?)
He was still not satisfied. He hit me. Everytime he saw my face, he would punch me in the gut. It happened at least twice everyday, to the point there were marks. I was only a student, I had picked up on student council activities and other extra curricular hobbies like clubs. I was practically too busy to work a part time job. I was busy broadening my horizons, because I was too cowardly to go to the outside world. So I did as much as I could in school.
I could not feel warmth in my own home, nor can I feel safe staying in public to find a job. My mother didn't beat me or anything, but she ridiculed me regardless. I wasn't doing so well before she left, just average I suppose. But it still got to her. Average was not enough, so I became better. I could not satisfy her then, and now I cannot satisfy my father whom I cannot comprehend. What was his problem? Why did he hate me so much?
Throughout all of these, there was one tiny Ray of light. It shone suspiciously, it was pure white yet the way it flickered somehow seemed malicious. But at this rate I knew, anyone could tell after all... Nothing would change if I don't accept that light. I woke up. It was a dream, but I could feel something was different. I received a Stick. No, it was more accurate to say I awakened as a magical girl in my sleep and made that stick unconsciously. It was unique, one of a kind.
It was like a common magical girl show, hiding my identity while fighting monsters that appear all of a sudden. It was not show cheery as it seemed, I nearly died so many times. It was painful, stressful, frustrating. I cried and cried, so much. I could not bear to abandon this duty, yet I hate it ever so much for the pain it brought me. My life was already hard enough, but having to hide myself and kill monsters in the dark was not all it seems.
You don't get acknowledged. Of course you don't, since no one knows. You'll never get acknowledgement. You have to keep fighting and fighting. There was no end. My body hurt all over and all I could do was wait it out for my regeneration to cancel it out. My injuries and my battles left no traces unlike my father's drugs. Nothing changed. Just more and more duties. Sometimes you even hear things you don't want to hear when you're in the dark.
"Why is she so arrogant. Her expressions never change, is she even human with how unfeeling she is?" (?)
"The perfect role model? Quit making the rest of our lives so hard! It's already difficult enough with being compared!" (?)
"Tch, her face is just like her mother's. And now her studious nature is the shame? If she starts gambling too, I'll have to leave. What a cursed bloodline that women left." (?)
Then it came, The Great Disaster. I had gotten in contact with other magical girls right before. We were in the same school so they easily saw through my real identity. I was elected their leader just because I had been here the longest. And that I was the student council leader. I am selfish. I want recognition, yet I loathe it.
I became a general, even if it was somewhat of a figure-head for Kanou's safety. I had been accessed as an A-grade magical girl, it only reminded me of my test results. I hated it. I picked up the name Friedra. I thought then I would start acting like a new person, but nothing much had changed. I'm still fighting for recognition in this puppet position everyone recognises, yet I continue loathe it as long as I breath. Just like my father, I cannot be satisfied.