*
Reverting to the 'first' form of my magical combat dress, discarding the sleeves and small chest cloak, my arm skin were now exposed as my muscles twitched from overuse. Regardless of the state of my body, I continue to fight. My spirit soared and I launched my left leg high. She intercepted by bending her elbow to shield herself with her arm before launching launching her right leg around my left to counterattack. I did the same as her by shielding with my left arm and threw a punch with my right. She narrowly dodges it by swerving her neck to the side before landing her knuckles in my face.
I stumble a few steps back, affected by the aggressive impact of her punch. Wiping the blood under my nose away, I bring my arms back up in a pose reminiscent of a boxer's. She launches a hit with her first skill, it was something I had no chance against. The impact felt like wind had blown me way from under my legs, making me slip and fly into the ground behind me, crashing a tumbling as more of my body gets crushed.
At this point, I could barely move my limbs. I think my body was going to give out and stop moving at any moment. My consciousness was fine and dandy, but my body... Was an entirely different story now. I believe the very first plan I had thought up was now in effect, though I'm too weak to finish it now... Essentially I had noticed her first skill costs her exponential amounts of magical particles to activate, having her spam it and run out of magical particles to do anything was the plan. Essentially since I was waiting for someone with a well larger than my own to run dry... It was a poorly thought out plan, something I clung to in my desperation.
So I'm afraid even if it looks successful, I have failed. It didn't feel like she should have run out by this point, it was just a hunch based on her magical particle expenditure. But perhaps she could have spent too much on purpose to convince me she had more magical particles than I thought.
I couldn't see through her expression anymore, her crooked smile had vanished to reveal an unfeeling cold mannequin. I can tell... She wasn't trying to be ruthless on purpose. The previous Kaori must have known her... Because every so often... We would hesitate to hit each other... It was a horribly ugly fight. My estimate was that she had enough to deploy her own Oblivion Magia, yet she didn't. She's beating me up but making sure not to kill me, as if delaying the inevitable would help her make a decision.
"Are you pitying me?"
"..." (Kanou)
"It's okay. You must have known Kaori, but I don't remember you. I lost my memories in Central, you should know the capabilities of the cult right?"
"...!!?!!?!" (Kanou)
Her blank face turned distraught once more. Her emotions fought for control over her face as a complicated expression was all that surfaced on her twitching cheeks, suddenly being dropped with a bomb would lead anyone into not knowing what face to make. After all it had rendered her entire previous chain of thought in vain, she must have fussed and struggled to make this decision seeing her not so internal turmoil right now. She must have been a good person.
We were all fighting for something we deeply value, and if we can't get what we wanted even after awakening as magical girls, what worth was there to living? It was completely normal for our interests to collide violently while leaving destruction in its wake. We wouldn't lose much after all, not that that had ever stopped anyone in the past. Maybe it was human nature to have conflict. In that case... I will embody humanity in Kaori's place.
The Great Disaster... Didn't exactly make life easy enough for people to bear any attachments. The disaster didn't make it easy for us to find a meaning in living on. So much so that it was no surprise that countless people have committed suicide to escape this hell... The remaining few see an unprecedentedly empty earth.
So then, what did Kaori see on this god give-... Forsaken earth? Just what did she find was so valuable that she could keep pushing on? I refuse to believe it was some measly hope that the world will return to it's previous state. It's so dredged up right now, even if we annihilate the cult the shady dealings in the shadows will continue. Prostitution, drug dealing, human trafficking, various unlawful activities deemed illegal even under subjective lenses will continue on.
When my memories were wiped and I first woke up... It felt like I had gone through an indescribably long dream. The only explanation to all my current knowledge was the law of magical girls. But if the such a law enforced by the world itself was so concerned by magical girl preservation, why was I the only one saved? Plenty of magical girls still die. A lot of them died trying to save as many people as they can during The Great Disaster, they exhausted their Wells and got crushed by debris like any other ordinary person.
The only explanation was either that my memory wasn't the work of the world, or that it deemed these memories as a fundamental nature of magical girls. I may have peeked into some higher power, or these were just so deeply ingrained into my existence that the enemy's skill couldn't erase that information. Though none of it mattered, it was so superficial and shallow. I just knew 'The Great Disaster' happened, I knew the amount of casualties, I knew what magic was, I knew the names of other magical girls I've met as Kaori.
But I don't actually know these things. If you read a book detailing a person from the past, say... Alexander the great, would you say you knew them? No, you would just say you were aware that they once existed in the past and list down their exploits if necessary. But you don't personally know them.
Those were my feelings towards my 'friends', those were the things I agonised over when I cried so hard my throat went hoarse as I killed the perpetrator. This gap that I can't fill with anything, killing the person that did this to me was my final sliver of hope to filling the gaping void. So I didn't bother to give any mercy when finishing her off. Even then this last morsel of salvation was absolutely worthless.
Maybe there would be a time I find true happiness. Maybe there would be a time that I can finally plug up this hole in my heart, after paying back all of Kaori's friends for taking care of her. Maybe one day I would no longer be wrecked up by this guilt, for preventing any of them from seeing Kaori every again. Everything I did, I did it to feel whole again.
Perhaps there was a possibility that I had become a mass murderer. It was temptating to see if killing more people would assuage my lack of self. My worthless ego. But I realised when Myuu talked so much about the Kaori she knows in the past, I realise everyone had their own precious memories they want to keep. And I wouldn't want to steal them away by taking their lives.
Despite the god magical girls appearing out of nowhere to save millions of people from The Great Disaster, 7 in 1000 people retained trauma, trauma of the ground, trauma of black objects. Right after waking up, my mind had peered into something.
It was likely the law of magical girls, it had likely deemed the information about The Great Disaster as a fundamental part of magical girls, there was also a large chance that it was something else. The point was that learning 80% of humanity died right after waking up wasn't a good start.
I spent many nights rolling and tumbling while fumbling over my thoughts. My mind raced to see what the point was in living and if humanity could continue this way. If people would be fine with the fact that their relatives have a high chance of being in the 80% that died in The Great Disaster... If somehow, someone out there was finding a more convenient reason to exist than I did... Because all I had was... I want to. At the same time I felt like I was always held back by the past, my guilt towards Kaori's friends oozing from my pores like an inescapable sludge.
"Then... Then I'll stop pitying you. Oblivion Magia, inert purgatory." (Kanou)
A grey circle extends from her feet, easily. Overlaying over my own colours as her dimension overwrote mine without much resistance. An Oblivion Magia was like an investment, one had to use the present amount of magical particles to activate it, but once it was activated they could use the ambient magical particles instead of their own well- that is if the opponent doesn't seize control over it. Then it would circle back onto a fight over who has more magical particles to suppress the other's Oblivion Magia.
Back to another back and forth, another tug of war that would only end in one's death. She had a skill that could disable skills, it wouldn't be surprising if her Oblivion Magia could completely suppress magic and erode away at mine effortlessly. She's standing at a far distance where her Oblivion Magia has already covered a large area, even if I ran in now my magic would likely dissipate and I would be left with only my augmentations.
There's a chance that it cannot disable Magia Retainment only because it's contained inside my own body. But it would likely go back to F.R.M rather than stay as 110%. I raise my arms up in a defensive position, keeping my magic as purely enhancement rather than doing anything to the environment. If I try to reduce wind resistance with my skill it would dissipate and waste my retained magic. So its best use was to stay in my body.
A hard blow strikes against my wrist that knocks it against my forehead, a loud creaking escapes from the collapse of my wrist bone. I flinch a little to throw her off. Make her think it was an accidental block. I leap forwards, I can no longer pull off last pace but I don't need to. I shield my face with both my arms as I rushed forward.
"Did you think I wouldn't notice? My base speed is still faster than yours. I can see." (Kanou)
Her words echoed with a distant and ephemeral tone, like a luscious whisper that hides its venomous fangs. Her fist lands squarely on my abdomen, likely aiming to get under my guard and crush some ribs as collateral.
"KGHHHHGG!!!!!"
Blood uncontrollably floods out of my throat, the impact of her punch had forced everything out in a crimson deluge. She was able to send out her attacks in this manner, while they were melee attacks in actuality, she had mastered them enough to make them long range attacks. It kept her safe and confused her opponents, but I could observe a back and forth in her movement. Her skill not only teleported her fist but her entire body as well, then she teleports back. Though it isn't really a normal teleport or her momentum wouldn't have increased over the distance.
I clench my abdomen with my dainty fingers, their average concrete paleness dyed in blood red. Their slender silhouette blocks out the light despite being so small. I rush in once more, it had been the umpteenth time, but there was no other way to fight. She could run away and make this drag on... So I have to quickly formulate a new plan. All I can pull off right now is a physical fight even though my physical aptitude was lower than hers. It was an absurd notion, but I don't see any other way out.
Rather than slowly shifting my limbs, it looks like she could tell earlier that I was predicting her attacks. So I have to properly time them right before she attacks. In that way she couldn't change midway. After all, I won't run around hoping a miracle would happen, I was improving my kinetic vision and my attention to detail the entire time. Though she had taken great pains to eliminate all preliminary movements so her opponent's can't predict her, there were only so many spots on my body that she could decimate. Her habits still shone through.
If I cover the vital areas, I could ignore the pain and bridge the distance between us. I raise my left arm to cover my left ear in an instant, taking a large blow to my head through my arm. My skull trembles but I think I could carry on.