***(?)
"I'll agree to it." (Se Li)
"You sure? No taking it back."
She looks at the ground hesitating for a second, before shifting her face and gaze to reach mine. A determined look born from her feelings and resolve.
"Yes, I believe you're not a bad person. So I'll trust you to give me something not too harsh. I'm sure it has something to do with why you hate me, so I'll happily make sure you won't hate me ever again!" (Se Li)
"... Defy them. Defy our parents, make them despise you if it's easier. Hold all your feelings in, don't be happy around them, don't be sad or angry around them. Ignore them, act like they don't exist. If you fulfill this, I'll call you my little sister and give you what you want. "
It was a little cliche, but it made the trade equal for me. If she didn't have what I wanted, I wouldn't mind giving her what she wanted... Then again we valued things differently. For her who has it her entire life, it would be far easier for her to just abandon it and give in to my conditions. The exchange was equal in terms of their value determined by my own perspective. For her, it was a boon... I'd question my own actions and whether I really gained anything of value out of it. The answer was no, but she said she would make sure I didn't hate her ever again. Maybe... I could learn to value her too just as values me.
"I'll do it. So it has something to do with our parents... Does that mean you actually hate them and not me? That makes me relieved, I wouldn't know what to do if you hated me too much for me to win you back... Heheh...!" (Se Li)
I don't know what was it that drove me to do this, but I proceeded to pat her head. At first she was surprised as she jolted before she tried to experience the warmth of my palm. On my end, I wanted to see how it felt to run her silky hair under my fingers. Did I secretly yearn for a little sister as well? Or was I just susceptible to any kind of affection now? I think I just wanted to reward her for holding out this long. For the little sister who never gave up, she deserves a better experience than I who have lost hope, I who clung onto an empty shell of a reason to justify neglecting her.
I.... I'm a horrible person...
"?!? Neng Li big sis... It's okay, I'm here now so stop crying. Just rely on me, Se Li! I'll do everything you say, so in return you must fulfill your role as the big sis okay?" (Se Li)
It wasn't something I could control, my body convulsed involuntarily as my heart beat faster and faster without end. It felt like my body was burning up with sweat yet my skin felt so cold. I cried my heart out while hugging her as tightly as possible. For next few years, I became less gloomy. She did what she promised and went to constantly hang out in my room while ignoring our parents. We both ate dinner in my room instead of the dining table, and no matter what she was always there for me. I felt incredibly blessed, to have someone I could rely on despite being the older sister.
The Great Disaster struck. I don't know what happened to our parents, but we were saved by a senior magical girl. The ones that existed before The Great Disaster. It was not long after reaching our temporary shelters and then moving to our communal homes, that we got kidnapped...
The silver lining was that I stayed together with her, and one day the facility we were in had burst into flames for some reason. The floor was scorching hot, but it seemed the flame had melted through the walls and made a path back to the surface from the underground. Lots of us who were captured by the facility's managers escaped during that night. A large amount of us formed what was called the Rising Knight Order with Celistane Frey as the Zenith commander and Palmicia as the vice commander.
I... Just wanted a safe and normal life, so I ran away with my sister. We were soon found again and were led to the labyrinth, at first its underground nature had reminded us of the facility. But the amenities and the people living there were so nice, they helped us fit right in. With our benefits received from the government, we still needed to work or study in the labyrinth. Of course, we opped to study. Se Li wanted to become a music performer in the future, she said that she was hoping a craftsmen or someone skilled enough survived The Great Disaster so they could build the piano for her.
I would go down the path of being a simple border guard. I was put into the normal academic focused class rather than the magical girl focused one, so I wasn't too well trained in combat and didn't receive many practical lessons. I wouldn't be anything more, but I was ready to live such a simple life it meant I could support Se Li faster, letting her go down the path she wants.
"Big sis... What about your own dreams...?" (Se Li)
"There's no problem. After you become a famous musician and are able to support the both of us, that's when I'll be able to focus on my dream! So for now don't think too much about it and just leave it to me!"
I wanted to be reliable quicker, I wanted to be the person she looked up to and can be proud of. If I was a border guard, it meant I would receive some training in combat while not completely neglecting my academics. This ensures that I retain my path to other careers while allowing me to continue on with a respectable job. I wasn't really into research, not especially after we got kidnapped... And other basic jobs like shop owner or stall owner had the tedium of logistics, customer service and marketing. Something really simple like security seemed like the easiest and most beneficial job to me.
It was a one sudden day, the usual stale nature of the labyrinth's air was interrupted. A black hooded girl with emerald green hair bursted in our apartment through the wall. Within a single flick of her hand-
***
"You... You've taken something from me. I'll kill you to get it back!" (Dedrinelese)
She flares up at the unknown hooded individual. While Kaori and Barius were currently out having a duel, this... This despicable decided to come back! Make no mistake, she was no warrior. She was simply blessed with an astoundingly powerful skill.
What was up with with calling herself the high commander of the 47th station? She was never apart of the Illnoia administration, they didn't use numbers to mark their post in the Sanctuary. But after thinking a bit, everything gradually got clearer and clearer.
"So all my problems should disappear after you disappear." (Dedrinelese)
She activates her long time partner, even if it has only been roughly a year and a couple months, life and death was enough to push her beyond what was normal. [Will that soars beyond]. For a simple reason she had trained countless hours to control it, it was a skill with limitless potential, was what everyone told her.
'Gravity manipulation?! Isn't that really cool/strong!?'(?)
Expectations and expectations, she never broke the shackles of expectations, not since she made that deal with her little sister. But this time, she's placing these shackles on someone else. To reduce the gravity on herself and instantly increase it when her fist makes contact with her opponent, finding the optimal way of manipulation that maximises destructive power. As if knocking a bell, a strong chime rang out in a circular manner as she struck the hooded figure, a straight line curved into the ground between them.
All of her power had been put into her fist and the ground shook and crumbled under her strength, her knuckles whiten and press into her opponent's sternum. A soft cracking sound rang out as the hooded figure flew from the force impacting her, crashing through the walls of the buildings behind her. Neli walked forward where the disturbed dust and debris flew in the air in front of the enemy's landing site. When the dust cleared, the crater left in the wall was empty.
A glint shone under the afternoon sun as it shifted in the background. Neli closed her eyes in thought as that small glint grew larger and closer to the back of Neli's neck. 'BANG!!!', a destructive roar echoed over the puny building as Neli twisted her neck to look at the perpetrator. She was still standing after the hooded figure tried to rush at her back, but since Neli couldn't predict where the enemy was coming from, she applied her skill in all 360 degrees around her.
Right as she did so, a clear impact struck the ground right behind her. The highly increased gravity in the area around her forced the hooded figure into the ground. Self-propelling differential movement. From such a close distance, striking the ground was practically the same as a direct strike, her fist collides with her target annihilating everything in the immediate vicinity due to the power of her technique. With the entire building coming down, a flood of fragmented debris shifted the ground underneath it around. From the outside, people could only assume it was an earthquake.
Due to the law of magical girls, no one can find out the true identity of the magical girl unless directly told or if the magical untransforms recently. There are many other laws under this umbrella term of 'law of magical girls', another one was that each magical girl would retain their memories of other magical girls if their mind was wiped but only their names.
In this case was another more common law that is widely known, if not directly shown phenomena would be attributed to the natural environment rather than magic. Some earthquakes and other natural disasters in the pass were caused by magical girls, but they were ultimately blamed onto tectonic plates or underwater eruptions.
As such, the common citizens outside were forced under a veil of ignorance, going about their daily lives without paying attention to the strange things that appeared. This was what made The Great Disaster so severe, it was impossible to prepare for or detect it before it came about. Since it was magic related, it was impossible for us humans to realise such a catastrophe was about to happen.
As the debris cleared away after a while, the hooded figure stood atop of the pile of debris.
"Are you satisfied?" (?)
"... [Deep arc withering sky] " (Dedrinelese)
A grey bubble wraps around the both of them, the fragmented parts of the building debris crumble into powder in an instant while the hooded figure was forced into her knees once more.
" I won't be satisfied until I kill you. Give it back." (Dedrinelese)
The edges of the bubble were grey as even light began to be pulled down by the grasp of gravity. However the gravity isn't localised into a single spot like a black hole. It's a completely uniform gravity relatively weaker to a blackhole but still strong enough to tear anything apart. The only exception being its user, Neli as she has a passive that protects herself against her own gravity manipulation. Her body simply repels any additional gravitational force.
Alarm bells pound the back of her head, causing her left leg to tremble as she takes a step back. Looking at where the enemy was initially kneeling on the floor, the hooded figure had already vanished in an instant... Turning around immediately, Neli spots the enemy right under her. She was laying on the ground with her arm around her ankle.
"You lost, you have nothing against psychological skills." (?)
This time she felt a sense of deja vu. Has this happened to her before...? Ah... Back when she still had her little sister to protect... She finally remembered, but only because in that same instance of the enemy applying the same skill that she had applied in the past, the visage of her little sister appeared in the back of Neli's mind. But this time her little sister won't be here for her to lose... Is she going to suffer something worse now...?
It was too late now even if something were to pull away the enemy's grasp from her leg. The skill had been activated, what had happened once before will happen again.
"Did you think it was natural? That this feeling of emptiness within my body screaming at my will at all hours won't alarm me? That I would optimistically believe it won't happen again?" (Dedrinelese)
Finally, she smiled. She will find her sister even if it took her life, she needed the skill to activate on her in case it reset her amnesia before applying the second amnesia.
" [Deep arc withering sky], even your magic will wither under this condition. Though not a direct anti magic, it disrupts skills all the same." (Dedrinelese)
The gravity within this barrier was uniform. The passive protects her body from being damaged, but this abhorrent amount of gravity is still inside her body. It was just coexisting with her. The grey bubble was there the whole time, the enemy was breaking down under its pressure as well and decided to have her last moments be activating her skill on Neli. If it had worked, [Deep arc withering sky] may have ceased function and dissipated back into magical particles.
"This is your loss." (Neli)