*
De Lan curves her body at a low angle, placing a palm onto the ground as she swung her leg at a speed beyond recognition. My body was blown away in the direction where the kick was coming from, the force devastating me as it sent me into a straight trajectory from its origin, showing that even her kicks had precise muscle and strength control. My counterattack had failed, and now there was no room to prepare for another.
De Lan quickly jumps and lands on her 2 hands, swinging her legs like a helicopter blade with absurd amounts of destructive force. Following her movements, I predicted the motion and direction of her kicks and punched toward it, but her strength was enough to completely overpower the punch and blow my entire body away. She runs along the ground, catching up to my flying body before slamming her fist straight into my torso. It was a taunt, she's saying haphazardly fighting is enough to beat me, that she doesn't even need to use her prided martial arts.
After that last hit, my airtime had increased, giving me enough time to form a water barrier. Unlike her barrier, it doesn't have to be cast continuously, it was a semi-physical barrier that follows me around so I can cast other magic as well. She has an absurdly strong barrier herself, which would require me to abuse the laws of time stop to break through. She also has a better physique, higher agility, higher strength and more magic power. To be honest nothing is going well right now. Her abilities are simply above mine, so I can't even force her hand into revealing more skills.
Of course with this much experience, I have some inkling of an idea as to what her skills do. While it's like that she has 2 skills that activate 2 different barriers, one that replaces her surroundings with the optimal environment such as the oxygenated one during that water battle, and another that is defensive and blocks absolutely all attacks. But she is an S grade, there is no low chance that the barriers were actually an act of a single skill. It wouldn't be that surprising, S grades usually have such strong primary skills, that's why they are S grade. Even their first skill has absurd power and potency.
I'm not going to be able to beat her with such half-assed resolve. I have to put my life on the line, even for my magic. I accelerate to full speed in an instant, creating a wave of water along my path. The water helps to heal me and speed me up a little.
She had secretly hid her abilities until the last moment of my counterattack, and it paid off. She completely nullified all my efforts just by showing off a little more of her barrier skill and turned all that water into air. She must have the ability to reduce the sequence that I had assumed into an instant, expanding her barrier and moving at the same time. It meant that when I submerged the entire area in water, she was moving slower on purpose to catch me off guard.
At this point, I may not be able to heal away the injuries considering how hard she hit me. I look completely fine on the outside thanks to the water, but my insides are in a twisted mess. Some parts of my skeleton had powderised and internal bleeding was pretty much ubiquitous in my body. It's like a literal fire lit up inside my body and is cooking my insides at all times. I grit my teeth and continued moving at high speeds just to catch up to her.
I had also learned some manner of martial arts before becoming a magical girl, though it was only to the point that I was better than the average person. I wasn't exactly a master and would lose out to true proffesionals, and the military training in the Illnoia administration and The Sanctuary Of The Eye God had taught me exactly that. There were also such masters of martial arts in the military and they taught me some things as well. But if I were to compare myself with De Lan, it would be akin to the power relationship between a student and a master.
As we approached closer to each other in a blazing rush, the surrounding wind was torn apart and forced to flow in an opposite direction. I reached out with my right hand and grabbed her wrist first to pull her closer and swing over my shoulder, at the same time I used my left hand to strike her torso and help carry her entire weight for my right hand to pull her. I proceeded to slam her onto the ground, but she landed on her legs first, making all that set up become in vain.
She reaches closer about to strike with her fist, I block her forearm holding the fist with a back palm and slide closer while lowering my posture. Taking advantage of an opening that I forcefully made, I threw my right fist towards her, but it was stopped right as it was thrown. She had anticipated all my attacks and stayed a few steps ahead. She then use her knee to send an uppercut. The impact of her hit caused the sky to suddenly turn dimmer.
My eyeballs no longer had the strength to turn, so they stared straight into the air above De Lan's head, but my peripheral vision was plenty to see she was right below my kind of sight... And right above the sky had gone pitch black... I was blacking out, the rate of my vision turning darker was increasing. In that darkness, it was as if I could see a distant dream. Well... Magical girls shouldn't be able to faint in the first place... It just meant that De Lan was that much more powerful, enough to cleanly break through the defenses of my magical girl augmentations...
***(familiar yet unfamiliar interlude)
When I opened my eyes, a familiar yet unfamiliar scenery unfolded before my very eyes. The scent of concrete and stale air filled my nostrils and the creaking of the wooden floor filled my heart with an uneasy nostalgia. My heart began to pick up its pace as my mind forced itself to make sense of its surroundings. My eyes see yet they cannot identify.
It was as if my conscious was in a chaotic disarray, that even if it could pick up these faint remembrances, it could not connect the dots anyway. It was too confused to do so, as if unrelated parts of my memories are jumbled into one scene, seperated by many years yet existing in the same place. An environment of irrationality, a deep sense of unease tugged at my hard so, until a voice filled my mind.
I was at a desk and a face I hadn't seen in a long time approached me. Her confident grin irritated me so, building up an accumulation of displeasure in my lungs that were about to burst. Yet in another part of my heart, it felt an unexpected warmth. A living intelligent being, maybe she can tell me what's going on here.
"Oi Barius, what happened to your oh so perfect results? Are you hiding them?" (?)
Her voice dripped with a venomous sarcasm, her eyes narrow and her silver hair frayed about like drawn curtains. Her picture perfect nose was but a tiny puzzle piece of the reluctant beauty that was her face. But all magical girls are beautiful though, it wasn't just her... I mean, I'm even the perfect one. My whole body is perfect, while for her it's just her nose... Anyway... I proceeded to look at my desk, I was still quite confused as when I first opened up my eyes, but that feeling has diminished.
My heart was settling and it sucks to admit it, but it was thanks to her. The girl who approached me. Our hair colour is really similar, but mine was slightly lighter. According to some magical girl experts, it meant that my rate of growth is faster than hers, but it isn't impossible for the hair colour to change accordingly. Some people can learn to grow faster. At the same time, it also tells your opponent a good estimation of your strength. So it wasn't all that great. Seeing as I haven't answered her all this time, she gives off a soft pout and begins to figet with her fingers.
"Uhm.... Uhhh... Sorry. I didn't realise your results were so bad that you couldn't show them to me..." (?)
... I... I can't believe I thought her pout was cute for a second... But now my irritation has crossed over the brink!!! I glared at her, but she just gives off a clumsy wry smile and goes back to her seat. I... I do indeed brag about being the perfect magical girl in class... Especially so when fighting against her... She wouldn't heed my words a single bit, wouldn't feel intimidated or anything. She would just give off this stupid smile of hers, laugh at my provocation and accept my challenges wholeheartedly. Then she would beat me. But... She hadn't made fun of me...
Made fun of me.... That only happened when I was compared to my friend Ikari... I don't see her anymore... Yeah, this place is different. This is the academy where we learn about magical girls and the world revolving around magic. And that girl over there... The one that talked to me... I haven't seen that expression of hers in a very long time... Kaori.
It was an odd feeling, almost as if I yearned to see it again even though I hated it so much. It was the ugliness that came with being better than others, even if she didn't say it she likely thinks of it. With how much she beats me at everything we compete at, it was impossible for her not to. Who's fault was it then? This inferiority complex... It drives me insane yet it is the reason for my existence. Despite the pain it causes me, I also feel that if there was no competitor then I lose the reason for my existence.
That's why, I'll no longer dwell on the past. I'll no longer reach for something that I cannot even see. Kaori beating was only because the world willed it so, the world also willed for me to beat others, I simply didn't look at them like how Kaori does to me. I cast my gaze on the ground next to my desk, as expected my bag was right there. I reach into my bag, pulling out the sheets that had just been handed to me. My test results...
I walk over to Kaori's table, placing them there for her to see, before leaving the classroom. This school environment, everytime I look down the hallway I see her. Ikari. I walk toward her, yet she begins to fade transparent. Yeah... I've overcomed your phantom long ago. A morbid sense of self-satisfaction wells up in my heart, but at the same time it's always mixed with a tinge of grief. I guess I miss her too. I didn't try to save her during The Great Disaster, I wonder if she survived. Well, it stopped mattering since a while ago.
Returning from the restroom, I laid my back to rest once more on my classroom seat. Standing in front of it and waiting was Kaori, a delectable face of dejectedness was waiting for me. Before I left, I placed my test papers on her desk, she must have seen them. After all, this was the time that I got higher than her. While she got higher than me in the first test, that was due to my arrogance.
But with my perfection, I studied perfectly and beat her with perfect scores. I also spent many days forgoing any rest or free time. Behold, this is the difference between us, the essence of my perfection. I gave her a smug face, inevitably narrowing my eyes in satisfaction. She glares at me with another pout and tears in her eye. She has become completely comfortable with being a magical girl hasn't she?
"... You...! You're lucky that you're a magical girl!" (Kaori)
"... What does that even mean?!"
She runs away and out of the classroom. Garion comes by with a crooked smile, anyone could tell that she was holding it in. Kenzi gave off a pitying look.
" Hahah, how silly. "
Idyllic days painted in her colour just like this, I easily forget these kinds of memories. But for some reason I find them all the more precious. They share some semblance of normalcy with everyone else. Something we can't easily find after The Great Disaster. Perhaps this was where the belief that she could do anything spawned from. Despite being so perfect, I threw everything onto her when we were kidnapped by the Illnoia Aministration.
Well, it's fine now.
***
De Lan, I'll make you realise how perfect I am.