*
We decided to rest a single night out of caution for my weakened constitution, my body wasn't working as I wanted it to and it began getting in the way of travel so we thought it was better to settle for the night. Using her time stop to keep the water in place, Barius made a large temporary tent out of water for us to sleep in. It kept the wind out and held anti monster runes, so it was more for convenience than anything. After all no one would rather stay up the night fighting monsters.
Though magical girls didn't need sleep at all, it was tough to kick off old habits. After all we've been sleeping for our entire lives, it was somewhat like placebo for us to still feel tired when night came. It was also one of the few things that helped us retain our humanity, according to Myuu. On the other hand, I felt that I always had trouble trying to sleep. I was only able to get through the first night because I was mentally exhausted from finding out I was an amnesiac.
After that I went through most knights with a little struggle. If I were to describe the problem in a single word, it was unnatural. My body simply didn't adhere to my will and needed substantial amounts of time to ease into it. Due to the nature of the world, or the law of magical girls, I was able to retain a simple memory, the names of the magical girls I've met in my entire life. Other than that, I held no memories of my time with them or anything else. Perhaps my vocabulary and literacy was also retained.
Similar to how the law of magical girls prevents people from finding out a magical girl's true identity, I suppose it worked the exact opposite for me. It felt like my mind had been tempered with so absurdly much that the magic defense around it had developed much like a physical immune system. One could say that cutting down my memories made my ego more concentrated and overbearing. It also opened up space for me to take in and integrate the foreign implanted egos.
A quick night passed as we headed out once more. We could not obtain their exact locations, but a little investigation by Barius' team from behind the scenes had given us the city that they were in. It wasn't much to go off of, but at least we should be able to close the distance with this. Not to mention that they had moved in half week that I was gone, so acquiring this information was actually quite impressive. The only issue was... How.
I don't doubt the information as it matched up to a mental map I had of central, but how did the scouting team verify it? Not to mention their investigative method. A lot must have went down as Barius had a really dark look when she received the message. It was transmitted by magic and in a horribly truncated code. Unexpectedly, she had no trouble deciphering it and passing it onto us.
"..."
".... Save it for later. It's not your place to know right now..." (Barius)
As if understanding even more than me, Neli had also kept up a quiet gaze, her eyes a little cold from the unnatural composure of her heart. Is she frustrated too? I wonder if she grits her teeth too when she gets mad.
" Alright, I won't pry. I know it sounds hypocritical coming from me, but if you need any help just come to me."
Her eyebrows shifted in surprise as a small smile formed to the side of her face, her heart beating unnoticeable faster to an insignificant extent. Without taking another moment to ponder, her fingers trace her tight temple, wiping off its sweat.
"... It's fine... I'm happy that you would offer your help, but why would do that? You have no reason to do so." (Barius)
"Why are you helping me?"
"Nothing much, Myuu is there right? If she needs help, I'll support her. If she doesn't, then I'll just go back. It's far better than waking up to a report one morning that your friend is dead. " (Barius)
She narrowed her eyes at mine as if to spite me, to blame me. Oddly enough, she quickly turned away in a rush, as if something behind me was bothering her. I held on to my poker face as a show of neutrality, that her words didn't bother me. Well, they did end up messing with me, but it was easy to move on from that. Since it didn't matter much, I decided not to pursue it. After all, I only needed to focus on my own goal.
"... Got it, a contractual relationship then. I'll be heading to the local hill to get a higher view and a nice place to extend my radar. How far are the ranges of your radars?"
I spoke as coldly as possible, trying my best not to show my emotions. It was fine, it wasn't as if I would stay with these guys my entire life. One day after I'm done, I can stop feeling resentment or frustration from their remarks. I had a lot in my mind I wanted to process first.
"..... 10 km. " (Barius)
".... 2 km. " (Neli)
" Then it's decided. Mine is 100 km. "
"... That'll cover the entire city from anywhere in it, why would you need to get higher ground to start working?" (Barius)
" So that I could get anywhere I want immediately, there's the problem of altitude if I do it at ground level, as having to jump onto a roof may impede me and let them get away. "
" Then let's get to working. Me and Barius will cover each half of our side of the hill, by starting in the centre of the city on our sides. "(Neli)
Without much delay, I went on to get above the hill. The only catch with my radar's full range was that I needed use a large amount of magical particles, as magical particle usage increases exponentially as the range increases. Rather than a ring-like expansion of magical particles behaving like some form of echolocation or sonar, it was used to transport information into my brain as my passive does the detection.
As it only has to analyse materials, it can use the absolute minimum amount of magical particles, allowing it a higher level of efficiency and range than the generic technique, radar.
As for looking for our targets, they had arrived in the second base they've reached right after I left. It wasn't hard to find the large amount of fluctuations in magical particle count of the underground base in this city. The cult's hideout, it took them way longer to find it as I wasn't there to act as a radar to find them manually. They must have relied on Gerald and Paridia's experiences as higher ups from the cult.
I understood that my own detection technique was far superior to others and frankly exists as an absurd notion. I mean, wouldn't this kind of specialisation be left to scout or spy type magical girls? In the end, I'll still use it since it benefits me the most. It was able to easily bypass their basic level of defence against enemy detection. Generic technique, radar wouldn't have worked. Not that there was any need for something like that anymore, seeing as it was in complete ruins.
***
"Tch! We got led to this rundown base, the employees here number far less and their strengths are all at a level lower. Even the boss was some B grade we threw at the wall..." (Gerald)
Clicking her tongue with a dissatisfied tone, she flung the magic reinforced iron door against the wall with a single kick. If not for having at least A grade strength, no one else would have been able to treat such a valuable door like a toy. As the party was 3 elite A grades, pretty much nothing at the base could stand in their way. It wasn't even necessary to dodge any attacks as their physical or magical defense would take care of it.
"We got lucky, if it was someone at the peak of B grade like Kaori, even we would have trouble." (Myuu)
She chided in, it was practically a trend at this point as her mind rapidly shifted from Kaori related to non-Kaori related topics. The other 2 could tell how much toll it took from her mind due to the blatant compulsive actions she exhibited. They decided to keep their silence without having to discuss it, a simple glance at each other was all it took. It started since the third day Kaori left.
"That's more so because her array of techniques, she has just about every basic thing down but it allowed her to keep up with us." (Paridia)
Only until Myuu was done did Paridia speak up, it was like they waited for Myuu to get it out of her system. They didn't want to be careless after all.
"..... If only she was an A grade. Nevermind S, just a reach up a bit more and hit A. " (Gerald)
She lamented having such a big potential dragged out from under her nose. It was a deal with Myuu, that Myuu would give it her all if Gerald stopped pursuing Kaori. Despite this, their relationship wasn't so strained that it would depend on a contract. It was a verbal agreement that Gerald consented to casually, in reality she didn't mind if Myuu ran away too. She wanted to stop the cycle of the progenitor creating victims with blackmail or naive wishes, turning victims into her underling, have them fight her enemies who won't submit to her, she didn't want to start a new cycle of her own.
" She can't help it, she hit a bottleneck. The only reason I can stay so carefree like this is because I haven't hit my own bottle neck. While I can continue growing stronger with training, she can't. It's a security band at this point, if I can't win I can run away and train some more. That kind of thing. "(Myuu)
" It's security she doesn't have huh... Even the most marginal difference in ability would impact the battle, with a mind plagued by problems like that it became a given she quit. "(Paridia).
They all stood off in silence, facing different directions as if to contemplate their own riddles. It was inevitable that Myuu felt conflicted, while the other 2 simply weren't sure of their own actions. Their combat compatibility and team work was nearly flawless, with any enemy they encountered, at least one of them could sneak in and kill with their highly dynamic movements.
Without another moments notice, super fine strings had wrapped around all of their bodies. The strings began sucking out their magical particles, it felt itchy then agitating as they struggled against the strings. As the strings rapidly sucked away magical particles, their magical defenses didn't post much of obstacle to it as it was basically being broken down while they maintained contact.
"Ugh... Enhance your bodies instead and break the string physically, forming a barrier would just make it worse!" (Myuu)
Following her advice, they stretched through the string and regained some sense of breathing space. Finally ridding themselves of that suffocating sensation, they looked around in wariness for the perpetrator. Hearing a scuttling sound in the distance, Myuu craned her neck into the direction with agile movements before examining the scenery for the source of it. There was something crawling around, and with no hint of its location, their anxiousness multiplied 2 fold.
Naturally they had grown a little used to such intense situations, without completely losing all their composure, they thread on around the place navigating the sudden influx of sticky strings hanging everywhere. They sprouted off from the cracks in the ceiling tiles and filled the underground base with a sea of white. While it does remind them of a certain arachnid monster, it could have been created by any monster with a web or string skill.
They had to be careful and enhance their eyes with magical particles. Eyesight was the simplest way to spot the fine strings as they absorbed magical particles, radars lose their seeking magical particles in the process and without the signal none of the strings could be revealed. It was a tough trap that was ridiculously stealthy, if not for the trap being somewhat simple to resolve. However, it was rather because of their brute strength that they were able to resolve the trap. Any other C grade and below magical girl would have gotten decapitated, and any B grade magical girls would have had to struggle a lot.
A single hairy leg pointed out around the corner with an ominous aura.