*
Her words dug into Kaede's mind as she tried to sum up the situation in her own terms. Before her eyes, she could see that the one speaking, Jiyu was a kind and gentle while cheerful type. She had shiny blond hair tied into an elegant ponytail, she also wore a low monocle on her right eye.
She wore a two piece suit, where the undershirt was white with a collar and fitted with a row of gold buttons from the top to bottom. Over that is a black V neck vest that also served as light armour as certain areas seem to be thicker than others. They must have been padded with some protective material. Below that, she wore a neat set of black sophisticated trousers that fit the colour scheme of the glimmering gold buttons and black vest over her top.
Next to her was Willen, a deep navy blue haired magical girl. Her curls were scruffy and rough, splitting into a few directions as they reached her shoulder. She wore a white jacket with a large and Sharp collar similar to a trench coat. Under that was a dark blue tank top with various metallic attachments lining her muscles. She wore a long pleated skirt that swayed with every movemtn, similar to a female delinquent.
At a glance, she had a rather calm demeanour that betrayed her looks as she stood behind Jiyu. Her eyes were keen and observant, taking in whatever detail she could scavenge from our conversation. It was good caution to take note of the weaknesses of even your allies should they one day backstab you, or face a troublesome enemy that could exploit that weakness.
With the power that magical girls hold, law enforcement has stopped becoming much of a threat as bullets and tasers won't be able to do anything significant. Normal military forces like police or the army become akin to ants in the face of magical girls. As such, it was sadly not uncommon for magical girls to disregard the law and take whatever they wanted with violence or coercion.
Naturally, the solution was to use some method to control magical girls or subdue them. The simplest way to do this was to recruit magical girls into the police force or the army, but with the amount of crime that they will face and the abominable mortality rate, the turnover rate was very high...
In other words, there isn't anything binding a magical girl's sense of values or morals to an acceptable extent. They can do as they see fit and the only way to deal with such monsters, was to fight fire with fire. If the local patrol guard magical girls weren't so amiable, the normal residents around here would be living in extreme fear. They can't run away nor can they do anything about it, should they draw a magical girl's ire. That was the kind of existence magical girls were.
"Now, I'm sure you have some news to tell us after the battle with the progenitor! This was a full on war that the Rising Knight order was about wage if not for your interference." (Jiyu)
She flashed expectant eyes as she spoke with a little hop. Her blond hair shook along with her movements while she moved closer to the bed.
"... We lost. To be clear, we all died. I was just revived after my death... Can I really be sure that I am myself, and not a clone with my memories? " (Kaede)
She shrugged her shoulders, as if shaking off the existential dread arising from having revived. No, she had no time to worry about such a trivial thing. The fact that her true identity was different from her body's was even more significant than everything else. But even the momentum for that has calmed down quite a bit.
" Ah.... Ah....?!!!! Then wouldn't she track you down!? "(Jiyu)
A dry shriek escapes Jiyu's throat as she tries to make sense of what she had just heard. Her first instinct was to care about her survival, so she inquired if they were being tracked or not. After all, Kaori may have just come here to leave her unfinished work to the Knight order. If that was the case, she would have brought a large danger to her organisation.
Of course, saying that the knight order was ready to wage war was different to saying she herself could fight immediately. For all it was worth, she wasn't prepared to risk her life right now.
Delivering a swift chop to the top of her head, Willen steps in to take over. She spoke with a decisive tone that took control of the situation. Her speech was steady and exuded a sense of support, contrasting heavily with her delinquent like looks.
"Alright! Alright! That's enough with bothering her! She still needs energy to report all of this to Palmicia and Kyou... For now you share this with the others.
'The progenitor is still alive.'
Leave this to me." (Willen)
" Yes sir... " (Jiyu)
Did I misread their hierarchy? When one thinks about it, perhaps someone with a disposition like Willen would prefer not to talk, and would leave it to her subordinates if she was the leader. I simply thought that Jiyu was carefree and a cheerful person to converse with, but perhaps that was also calculated to get information out of me... Did they want to make me feel at ease? Or find something beyond that?
... Was I feeling paranoid? I... I haven't talk to much people since I found out I wasn't Kaori... But... From her memories alone I could already see the ugly of humanity. There's no need to witness any more atrocities to affirm that. People are untrustworthy, but what about Grail? For now, it seems after some talking I could move my fingers and wrist again. Just a bit more time and I could even move my limbs, albeit they wouldn't be coordinated.
"... She... She broke my well. So I'm in a bit of a pickle. I could barely maintain my transformation as is and keep myself alive.. But anymore than that would be dangerous." (Kaede)
"... How about we keep you up to date first. I'll assume you've fought with the progenitor for a few days straight, as an opponent like her would require at least that much time to beat down... Then again, you did lose...
Can I assume that you are in a very injured state right now? " (Willen)
" Yeah, I'm in no condition to fight, so I can't be counted on should anyone attack right now. "(Kaede)
"..." (Willen)
"..." (Kaede)
" So you were saying?" (Kaede)
Leaking a slight tremble, her face went a little flushed as she covered over her display of carelessness with artificial confidence.
"... We were fooled. The monster kingdom built by elite intelligent monsters on par with magical girls, every single one of their citizens there would pose a threat to human life.
Before The Great Disaster, we humans have outnumbered them 10 000 to 1 between our entire population. That was the remaining cause of deterrence to this conflict. Unfortunately, the great disaster made it around 3500 to 1. Realistically, if they only fight around their borders they wouldn't even get outnumbered. Add to the fact that normal people can't even oppose them, leaving the job to us magical girls, they have gotten a rather large advantage.
The diplomats representing our continental factions... They promised that the monster kingdom wished for peace, but now that has been turned on its head. The monster kingdom was simply bidding its time for a takeover, the demon king has more than 3 skills and has killed countless magical girls.
Here comes the harrowing part, he has found a magic that clones his body. They are all at the same level as him, with basically no difference. An army of himself... It's like facing an army of god magical girls. They've breached the shoddy frontline of the Grundo alliance where the continent of Africa used to be. The Warlords are being deployed, but no faction has any confidence in that being held up for long. Our only hope is for the God magical girls to move, and unlucky for them, the Grundo alliance has no God magical girl ruling at the top. " (Willen)
"... Where is this information coming from? Are you sure this isn't a prank by some post apocalypse writer? " (Kaede)
"... That's the thing... This entire threat to humanity... It made those uncooperative continental factions work together to pool intelligence... Humanity moving together is the horrifying proof... As far as I am concerned as a person from before the apocalypse, conflicts between humans is way more normal... " (Willen)
"..." (Kaede)
All that draws to her mind was an incomprehensible blank. War between humans was normal? It irked Kaede to think as such, but without her memories of the past she couldn't really understand or judge it. Didn't that mean that nothing has changed at all? Whether it would be fighting humans or fighting monsters, fighting after The Great Disaster or fighting before The Great Disaster... Isn't conflict still awful?
"What about the Dragon God of the Illnoia Administration, the transcendent pope-saintess of the Holy Kingdom, The immortal monarch of the Gangrea Monarchy, and... The Eye God?" (Kaede)
".... Among the seven continents... South America is inaccessible to the outside world, North America and Russia's pope-saintess and Dragon God are territorial and holding themselves up.
You should know this, but Europe or Gangrea Monarch's immortal King fell to the Grundo Alliance or Africa's Warlords and the Dragon God. Grundo Alliance's Warlords are S grade and are the most numerous in numbers, but they ironically they don't have an SS grade God magical girl.
The Eye God of The Sanctuary or Asia has gone missing, and Australia has disappeared off the Earth from the start of The Great Disaster. Something to do with their wildlife mutating into an S grade monster and vaporising the entire thing away. Though there isn't definite proof of it... Since it has all vanished away..." (Willen)
"... If none of those guys are reliable... Then what do we have left? An army of Demon Kings... We don't even have the ability to defeat a single one... They say the Grundo Alliance is holding them back as the closest border, but they're being sacrificed to buy time, aren't they...?
... Could you intercept your partner or just inform this branch? With my well busted up, I can't help anyway. Tell them Kaori is dead, and... Register me as a member under the name Kaede. "(Kaede)
A pin drop silence pervades the entire room, causing the 2 to subconsciously hold in their breaths. It was a given fact that the Grundo alliance was sacrificed, whether the leaders of each faction supported it intentionally or not. Kaede didn't really care to receive a reply and... Willen couldn't bring herself to blame Kaede for making such a decision. Everyone wants to live, and some even more so even if it's to abandon their country and escape war.
Willen grits her teeth. At this point, she had worked her way up in the organisation. A B grade, a platoon leader, where magical girl platoons usually only consist of 2 individuals. 9 is a batallion and usually led by B or A grades in the most powerful organisations. Even the best organisations usually do not have an S grade, as those would be scouted and welcomed by the government of the continental factions.
In other words, Willen herself was a big shot at the local level. Most magical girls end up as rank and file E to C grades. It was Kaori that was unusual for constantly encountering powerful individuals. Despite having so much going for her and how much effort she put into her work, Willen thought to herself, '... How powerless... Was this how the normal humans feel about us?'. Being strong enough to draw the ire of normal people, yet not really enough to truly solve the problems plaguing everyone. They exist exclusively in this hell, that is the reality of weak magical girls.
She gritted her teeth and gripped her fist hard enough to hear her palm flesh stretching over her finger. Her calm facade was felled for a moment before she recovered her composure.
".... I'm not easy to fool, I've dealt with my own fair share of human resource work. You can't help but want to run, however, instead of retiring, you wish to join as a newbie? What's in it for you?" (Willen)
Her gaze was sharp and her voice was cool to the touch, making this social pressure palpable and suffocating. She was full on trying to intimidate without using her aura, and only someone weaker wouldn't be able to distinguish this subtle but complicated difference. It required a lot of skill to set the right mood in order to intimidate someone without using their own aura, skills found in other professions unrelated to magical girls.
That's why it's so effective on magical girls, a considerable portion of the newer magical girls, which is the majority of the magical girl population, came from student backgrounds. Young people... With a low amount of social interaction... She discovered this requirement of being a magical girl out of sheer coincidence. A topic that these new magical girls would find too sensitive or distasteful to even consider. An exclusive boon for Willen.
On the other hand, auras are extremely easy to use. The only downside being the range which is harder to control, as auras get more diluted the further they go. They also lose all effectiveness if the opponent has a stronger aura. Coercion forced by magic... It's very easy to recognise that it's done by magic, but beyond that, it's inherent magical nature can be felt physically and countered subconsciously by the other person's aura and will stat. Doing it psychologically the old fashion way doesn't encounter this problem.
As such, Kaede was... Not affected. She had experienced her own death and identity crisis, which was pyschologically more stressful than some intimidation.
"Running? Who said anything about that? I want you guys to fix my well so I can continue fighting... The progenitor is an immortal monster that isn't going to kill itself anytime soon." (Kaede)