*
It had been only been a couple days since the incident, but a hypothesis was made and we can't do anything about the enemy's concealing abilities. If even Palmicia can't detect them, it either meant that they were too good at hiding or that they're too far away to reach. However now that it was the third day it was obvious. Why did Kyou immediately go away when Palmicia was about to arrive? Now he was our only lead. He occasionally walked around here but never talked to us, purposefully avoiding us but not the employees.
It was difficult to wrap our heads around, since the enemy likely has a skill that messes with information gathering. Meaning that we must have been inflicted by that skill to subconsciously push Kyou to the back of our minds. We treated his avoidance as normal and went about our daily lives. But as days passed and the effect of the magic weakened, it becomes more glaringly obvious. Kyou was related to this...
So we went to Kyou's room which was a temporary one like ours, but... He looked to be the very embodiment of pathetic. He was bunched up with his spine bending to a C-shape and his arms and legs were bent closer to his body. Make no mistake, it didn't seem like anyone did this to him. This was just a reflection of his mental state. When he saw us, a small glimmer shone in his eyes.
"It's... It's not my fault right? T... The... The dead employee... I didn't kill her right?" (Kyou)
Kyou's primary form of attack was to materialise a blade with his passive and then enhance its power with his first skill. He wore a light robe with a leather belt, boots and gloves, under it was his chain mail armour and some light metallic plating that roughly covered the center of his chest... Uhhh, her chest. She was a prideful individual, I knew at least that much. From what his words suggest, despite saying the opposite he must have killed the employee and is now denying it. But that was a very incomplete conclusion, there were still many factors to investigate. In the first place, why?
There was only the moonlight shining into the room as the employees had left and turned off the lights. We had spent too much time in the hot springs but that wasn't important right now.
"... I see, so the first victim was Kyou. Perhaps the information messing skill could not only manipulate memory but also cause illusions... No, maybe only her memory is affected. That's possible as well." (Paridia)
She spoke with a calm tone akin to the one she always uses in normal speech. It was an odd habit of hers to speak as monotonously as possible, but it was still possible for her to speak with emotion. It felt like I was listening to an android speak and deduce our current situation as it held many investigative processes in the background.
"Huh?! You already deduced the enemy's skill? If they could do something as discrete as manipulating memories without getting found out, surely they were strong enough to kill us..."
She pointed at Kyou before speaking.
"Look at Kyou. They're playing with us! And if they made contact with us in the busy street outside then they could have just made us forget that we were touched by them. We were likely all affected right after we defeated the dragonoid. This is an A grade far stronger than any other before, not due to combat power but simply due to their absurd skill. " (Paridia)
She looked warily around as if the perpetrator would reveal themselves right now. But that would be very pointless as their greatest advantage right now is being hidden. It made no sense for them to throw that away. We needed to find them ourselves and defeat them to clear everything up. Or we could solve it through sheer wits, which may or may not be harder depending on the person.
".... Even so, if we were really unaware of all this due to the opponent's skill. How do you know about such a possibility. "
She made eye contact with a conflicted gaze, but quickly got over it as she spoke about her knowledge. She didn't make any particularly dramatic gestures, as if she was just talking about any Tuesday.
"Simple experience. I've met them before, though their skill effect was weaker since it had a range. When I stepped out of their range, I sniped the user from there. This one on the other hand doesn't seem to be the ranged type. So she can't strengthen or weaken her memory manipulation on us without touching. We were wrong about their information gathering skills, it was simpler if they are able to read and fabricate our memories. " (Paridia)
" But we can't discard that possibility... "
" Then what else can we do but fight head on? Let's do something unexpected tomorrow. You'll know. "(Paridia)
She spoke with her usual smug expression that she wears during battle. Confidence welled up in her eyes and it felt like the crooked smile worn on her face was emitting brilliance. I couldn't tell her directly, but I decided that I wanted to preserve that smug expression of hers.
***(next day after training)
My blade had lightly cut Palmicia's tummy, but as I had finally made contact I believe that was the end of the training. For her it should be like a mosquito bite due to her nature and skill, so I wouldn't really worry about her wound. As usual we jumped out of the underground lair we used as a training ground and began to head back. This time, I had my radar on to detect any weird presences around Palmicia.
Sure enough, there was one near the outskirts of my range. unlike the usual radar technique that other magical girls employ similarly to a sonar radar, my own detection technique was a passive skill that activates in my combat dress to directly give my mind the information of my surroundings, regarding what substances there were and concentration or gradient levels. It doesn't send out a wave of magical particles, wait for them to bounce back to me to collect information. Though one can make that wave small and discrete so it is harder to detect, my passive was impossible to detect without being near me.
In other words, my enemies will have no knowledge of my range and will thus be at a disadvantage. Originally this passive was to aid my first skill, [hollow calamity] the manipulation of gradients and subsequently substance movement. It is hollow because my sword is a hollow vacuum blade, but its edges are powerful like a calamity.
Gradients have always existed everywhere, I didn't even need to create those gradients myself. It is simply the difference in concentration of substances, or other possible factors that could bring about a difference. But who said the difference needed to be significant? In reality, particles are chaotic and move randomly to always cause a gradient, it is an unending fluctuation that only looks homogenous on the macro level. On a smaller level, there are an infinite amount of gradients.
My second skill [The gap of impermanence is a cage] has a rather long name. But in essence it represented impermanence, the need to change or the need to move. It allows so much more precision than my first skill, yet it complements it instead of superseding it. Unlike [Hollow calamity], it allows me to stop particles in place and form a pseudo time stopping barrier around myself, to serve as a durable shield. The only problem is that it was very cost intensive on the magical particles in my well.
I ride the momentum and attack with [Hollow calamity], I defend with [The gap of impermanence is a cage]. Kyou had been messed up bad by the perpetrator, so I won't spare an ounce of strength. Though my growth as a magical girl has mostly stopped, my growth as a human being hasn't. I can still get smarter, strategise more, become more shrewd, learn more techniques and become stronger in ways other than brute strength.
***
I... What was I doing? I... I was training with Palmicia and we were heading back. It felt like a portion of my head was empty, like something was missing when it was suppose to be there. I... Can not remember...
Heading here in the opposite direction was Paridia, her casual clothes of a navy blouse and light sky blue skirt with leggings shone under the dewy gold of the setting sun. It was quickly getting dark in a few minutes, she must be picking us up. Was she feeling lonely from being seperated? How cute, it had only been 3 days since I've began training with Palmicia. I would say that my growth was explosive and that my own fighting style was beginning to mold itself.
From now, even if I was weak, I thought that I would at least be useful as a distraction to give time to my comrades. When we head back, 2 similar girls, one slightly shorter than me and one a bit taller than me had appeared. The shorter one, Myuu had golden brown hair like autumn leaves that coloured her shapely twintails. She had a light yellow one piece dress and dark red hair bands that keep up her twintails.
The taller one, Gerald had bright ruby red hair that contrasted her fluttery frilled black collar attached to a detailed black dress with a complex pattern of black and translucent dark grey. She also wore a beige Cardigan that kept her arms warm and black stockings could be seen covering her legs from her low and light shoes.
Myuu waved at me before she turned around to walk in the same direction. We gathered in the guest room with Kyou and Palmicia accompanying the 4 of us.
"Paridia, did it work?" (Gerald)
We all sat down, and immediately Gerald had opened up with an unfamiliar topic. An ominous premonition crept down my heart, causing it to sink down my torso in anxiousness. Please... Wait... Sto-
"Yeah, sorry to use her as bait... But if we didn't pretend to be weak, then enemy would have erased more than just our memories related to them." (Paridia)
...
An uncharacteristic crestfallen expression caressed her face as she tilted her gaze downwards with her neck. Her body looked oddly smaller than usual, her defining confidence had all but gone into the void, leaving a pitiful husk sitting opposite from me. Palmicia and Kyou were sitting on the couch place on the East Side of this small guest room. Me and Myuu were on the south, and Gerald and Paridia were on the North.
".... You're saying that sacrificing Kaori was the only good choice to prevent the rest of us from becoming empty shells... I'm sorry, but such a thing... I just cannot forgive you... "(Myuu)
Her mad face permeated every inch of her lovely cheeks as her brows sat knitted vigorously against her nose ridge. The dimly lit moon light bounced of her eyes with a violent glint.
" What... Are you talking about? I'm fine aren't I? I still have you guys... And this... Why am I here?"
Her eyes sunk further and the sharp glint was gone from Myuu's expression, it softened considerably as if it was looking at a pitiful animal. But, it looked to me like she was hurting the most. I... I can't understand or feel what's happening after all. I don't... Sense any magical particles. They all seemed to be wearing clothes protective against the cold, but I'm lightly dressed and I don't feel cold... It's like I can't take in the information from the sense of touch and magical particles anymore...
My sight, hearing, smell and taste work normally... Wait... Have I been walking or was I leaning on someone? With my sense of touch gone, it's incredibly difficult to move or control my body. It feels like my entire being is numb and cannot feel anything, like I'm using my bones to drag frozen meat across the ground. I open up my palms once more... Then I look as far back as I could see in my memories. There was nothing but a blank.
I am only vaguely aware of my own existence due to the law of magical girls... The very first law of identity that resides in the system of laws known as the law of magical girls, any non magical girl who cannot perceive magical particles cannot perceive a magical girl's true identity. The opposite is also true where anyone who is a magical girl will have a firm grip on their own identity unless affected by magic. Due to this law, I still have a crumb of my memories pertaining to when I had awakened as a magical girl until now... Almost as if it was a record...
"I... What happened to me? Why are my memories gone... And especially my sense of magical particles... I can't feel them anymore..."
A few melancholic expressions gaze back at my questions, regret and frustration poured into each one to dye the room in a dim atmosphere.