***(Kaede)
The next day had passed quickly, it was finally time. Due to the previously memorised route, we were able to follow Willen further than usual. Our footsteps trod over the dirt with more confidence.
That last spar with Barius had forced me to push my control over my own magic to the maximum, busting past my own potential and approaching Kaori's actual ability. The double diagonal skirt fluttered over my legs, making my thighs feel breezy. The entire time I didnt felt cold at all due having a magical girl's resistance to temperature, listed as the all encompassing defence, the endurance stat. But I quickly realised the wind was pushing it too high and I was more exposed than normal people.
I wonder how it would have been like to wear a normal skirt, but I used my first skill to reduce the ferocity of the wind instead. Bearing with it all, making use of what little I have, I guess that's been the modus operandi the entire time.
Willen enters a building at quite some distance away, she zigzags in her movements to throw off any potential stalkers but her speed as a C grade couldn't throw us off. Not to mention that we surveyed the area before hand and predicted her running routes. Lo and behold, the final destination of her secretive escapades. I wonder if there would be anything worthwhile here, my hunch tells me that there's something important here but I can't tell what. I can't verify my hunch without going in firsthand.
Sorry Willen, we might have to invade on your privacy. I doubt things are so simple as they seem. My passive doesn't tell me much at the moment, the magic density there is... Higher than a human settlement but not too unusually high for a location next to magical girl's headquarters. With so many magical girls around to leak their aura, it wouldn't be strange to detect stray mana even out here.
Detecting stray mana is like seeing a small bright sailboat in the middle of the sea. We have ambient mana which is the natural mana of the environment, it exists in an infinite amount unless someone deliberately cuts off your access to these ambient magical particles.
Then there is controlled, processed or refined magical particles. Particles that we magical girls have absorbed from the air in the form of ambient magical particles and put under our control in our well, we can't manipulate the particles in the environment other than to absorb them, but once our well refines them by putting them under the influence of our mana signature, we can utilise them and convert into skill phenomena.
Finally, there is stray mana. They are magical particles that were once refined, one could say they are 'leakages' from our well, though our Wells naturally release and emanate magical particles that our mana signature can no longer influence. Examples of these particles are the aura that magical girls emanate, which are the excess that our well is 'too far away' to influence with our magical signatures.
Another example is the particles that we used up for using magic, we say that we 'use' magical particles as energy fuel for magic, but the particles actually contain infinite amount of energy. What we're losing when we use magic is actually the particles that are under the control of our magical signature, when we use magic our signature has a lessened extensive control over the used particles, making them harder to conjure magic with. Then we release them afterwards in the form of our aura.
Magia Retainment operates on the basis that we ignore the fact that my signature no longer has any control over the particles, but we continue to use them anyway through forcing their movements. Used magical particles are released through our auras and they release themselves due to a movement gradient. We reverse that gradient to keep the magical particles, and since we used these particles from the start and didn't stop using them, even if my signature loses control over their movements they will still be fueling my magic.
Magia Retainment Perpetual? At the moment I wouldn't know what that is. Maybe Grail has a clue. We finally reach the building that Willen went into.
"Should we knock...? " (Kaede)
"..." (Barius)
"Nevermind then..." (Kaede)
Without pause, I twisted the door knob open with just enough strength that it wouldn't break and entered inside. Barius and Neli followed closely behind, taking caution in their own ways. I materialised my rapier on my hip and placed my palm over it. The interior of the building seemed fairly normal, with nothing that particularly standout. If there was one thing, it would be the fact that it wasn't in ruins. The furniture and architecture was all completely intact compared to its surrounding buildings, giving the sense of a hermit that lived away from civilisation.
A cozy wooden cottage, some sturdy windows, soft and processed wooden furniture that avoided decay. The current refining processes for wood were still a little primitive, though I can't really tell apart the precise details, they looked to be treated more sophistically.
"... The public only has widespread access to paint on preservatives, using pressurising methods would mean the person that lives here is rich or..." (Barius)
"A magical girl. My gravity skill can be used to pressurise preservatives into the wood to imitate this, but I doubt things are so simple." (Neli)
"A time before...? From before... The Great Disaster... Did this house survive by being hiding in a rural area?" (Kaede)
From what they're saying, they might have seen this advanced methods before The Great Disaster. Perhaps it was more widespread back then. Then were these methods recreated or did this house simply survive The Great Disaster?
"Wait! Do you guys still have Willen tracked down?" (Kaede)
"Nope." (Neli)
"No... I thought that even if we might lose her, your passive might hold on to her whereabouts..." (Barius)
A slight frown reaches all of our faces. Every clue pointed to the conclusion that we walked into a trap out of our own volition. But... Strange things will be strange. It might be magic that has been activated automatically or even both. An automatic trap that detects individuals other than their owner and recognises that they are intruders. It would take a complicated and complex magic circle to do that without a related skill.
Anyone could create a magic circle that contained any magic, but knowledge of the specific magic is necessary. It's fact that since magical girls have their own skills as their lifeline, no one would release their magic for the public to use like that. Meaning magic scrolls with these kinds of specific advanced spells are highly regulated to prevent such a thing from happening. If violation such as mass producing without a license is detected, an execution team would be sent. At least that was what I heard, an exception to the rule would be teleportation, it's widely accessible due to the authorities acknowledging its versatility.
"Let's figure out what's happening. High chance that this is another space altogether, but I didn't detect any teleportation magic at the entrance..." (Neli)
"A door that can take you to multiple places without teleporting... It's the room that changes, not us. Willen is in another space, but it wouldn't explain a weird place like this." (Kaede)
"Yeah. Quick, let's check if we can go back ou-..." (Barius)
Unexpectedly... We can go back out. In fact, the door was still open, we didn't close it on our way in. It would have been a disaster for our stealth attempt if we had gotten into the same room as Willen on the first try, but there it was. The outside, it stood there with a gentle cold breeze flowing in, as if it was telling us that of course it would stay, where else could 'outside' go?
"... Have either of you seen this exact place before?" (Kaede)
"... Seen? No... Not really. I mean while it is unusual for this age, but back then it's gotta be very common.
So there's a good chance that we might have dismissed it as generic and forgotten about it but actually seen it before." (Neli)
" Our memory? You think it could be playing with our memories? " (Barius)
" Yep, I wager that guess but... There's a chance that this magic room is constructing the environment based on someone else's memories, not ours..." (Kaede)
" I see, with that kind of thing... Then it'd be akin to going into another dimension... Since there should be multiple memories that are accessible with that same door. " (Neli)
But they didn't detect any magic when opening the door... Or was the activation simply camouflaged? Or rather, does the mechanism actually matter after going this far? Wouldn't it be better to prioritise the results? Kaede decided it wasn't going anywhere, so it would be best to walk out and go back in once more.
"We'll have one person standing outside, one person holding the door open and I'll run in spamming my passive. Cool with you guys?" (Kaede)
"No." (Barius)
"No objections here." (Neli)
Deciding on who gets which position, we all ran into action as soon as possible. Exiting the room, I opened the door once more and... It was the beach. I couldn't pick up on anything, no presences no life inside there. While it did look extremely arid and ready for the summer holidays, the temperature I felt was the same as the outside...
I see... Was it an illusion? No, everything I touched had an actual feeling of touching something solid. My hand didn't phase through the objects in there, it was how we verified the wooden furniture.
"No sign here. What's more it doesn't feel warm in here at all. The cottage earlier made us feel comfortable based on memory but... It's either a visual effect..." (Kaede)
"Visual effects don't make sense either. The cottage was likely an effect of placebo. Otherwise this beach would feel warm inside wouldn't it?" (Neli)
"Yeah. It's odd how the cottage felt humid and warm like the inside of a cottage but this..." (Kaede)
While they pondered for the answer, Barius who was at the door had a strange thought occur. 'What if I closed this door now? What would happen to her?' (Barius) Of course it would only remain as a mere fantasy, but the wouldn't ignore the fact that she was smiling mischievously to herself.
"... Did you figure something out, Captain Barius?" (Neli)
"... It's got something to do with he door isn't it? Come on, tell us. We need all the information we can get." (Kaede)
"... I'm thinking, you need to experience what Willen did... " (Barius)
" That's...!!!!" (Neli)
The distant scream resounded all the way to where Kaede was, capturing the distress in her voice. But...
"It's fine. We have to gamble to get to where we want, especially since I started this. Though I won't forgive you if you guys run away now with your tail tugged between your legs." (Kaede)
Kaede firmly pointed at them with her index finger, the under hand rested on her hip and her body slanted to a side.
" Close it, you better remember this. " (Kaede)
The only way tod describe her smile was that it was cocky. It reminded Barius of the days when she was with Kaori... But they are the same person, so why is the present one reminding her of the past? An unsettling discomfort settled at the back of her mind, but she suppressed it out of respect for Kaede's bravado.
She slams the door closed, her arms trembling as she digested the contents of what just happened. She felt a warm hand pat her back.
"Captain, we have to continue." (Neli)
"... You don't want to run? She's been taking us on this insane trip... And at the end.... We may end up like Gerald, Paridia and Myuu. Following her feels like I'm following an old man who lost his war buddies, it doesn't make me hopeful about our mortality rate at all. " (Barius)
"... But even so, you're still following her right? Just like I'm following you. Just like how even if our great leader in there is hesitant and super foolish compared to our expectations of someone who fought S grades head on, we still have some faith.
I know because I'm always behind you, watching your back. She takes the crazy to the next level, making it far more dangerous than following you. We accept the irrational as magical girls, otherwise... " (Neli)
Looking at Neli, a gentle smile grew on her face, though her eyes still looked pained even now. They've looked pained everytime Kaede wasn't looking.
" Haa~ this is why magical girl mortality rates are so high. We can't help but seek the unknown, while thinking we are invincible. At the same time......
No one can handle the pressure of being immortal unless they got a screw loose. It looks like we really do deliberately find opportunities to die in battle. " (Barius)
She heaved the heaviest sigh today, her voice dropped and her throat became parched.
"... Most people want to die because they can't accept the post Great Disaster world. Not a fragment of modernity is left, so people seek to die whether intentionally or subconsciously as they look for stimulation in battle.
But look, does it not fascinate you? How Kaori is still alive despite all the danger she's been in. " (Neli)
" Hell yeah. " (Barius)