***(Kaede)
Her senses adjusted to the surrounding space. An active beach with viciously swirling waves had the temperature typical of night time... This odd disparity particularly stuck out in her mind. She walked on the sandy beach the texture of the sand crunching under her shoes were vivid and clear, their vibrations reverberated into her foot as if it was all real, that someone had built a large open beach with access to the expansive sea inside a building.
The moment the door closed, it vanished. As if one side of it was a proper door, and the other was space itself. She walked through that space, with the faint hope that her body would discover something solid, wishing that the door was simply invisible rather than gone.
"..." (Kaede)
Without much of a choice, she began exploring every corner of the beach, for a while now she had been trekking along the coast. Her feet had gotten used to the sensation of stepping over sand and a hint of salt wafted over by the sea breeze. She materialises her void rapier, her palm touching its needle thin pommel.
Rather than a rapier, it was practically a thin line or a super long needle with a guard. The guard stretches outwards then back inwards like the lopsided version of a letter 'm' or one small and one large loop that ends at the ponnel, acting as a knuckle and loop guard.
"... I can feel the magic in this space... It's possible to pinpoint a weak spot and rend it... But that would destroy this memory space and alert Willen." (Kaede)
At this point, was Willen an enemy? She couldn't be sure, but seeing this magical space boiled her blood. It was akin to entering a new world, the fresh sensations of the sea breeze brushing roughly against her skin increased her heart rate. It was exhilaration, the risk to her life, the mission, the unknown, it all accumulated together into such an environment.
30 minutes, at this rate Willen might leave this place and leave them in the dust. She had been walking along the watery coast the entire duration, but there was no change in sight. At that time a cold sensation wraps around her throat and back. What if I never make it out of here? No, she could sense the flow of magic here, she can annhilate the magic maintaining this space if she wanted to. It was the final resort, the last line of composure she had.
Ah, wait, there was another.
"... Grail..." (Kaede)
"... I can't read your thoughts all the time, but I can feel them. Are you sure you want to step further? You've been ignoring it this whole time and it has worked out just fine hasn't it?" (Grail)
"... I had a nice change of pace. This incredible sky so blue that I'm sure I wouldn't be able to witness it anywhere else, I'm sure it is but someone's glorified memory. But it is still beautiful to watch, you see? " (Kaede)
She shares her vision with Grail for a moment, her own perspective went blind as Grail made use of her eyes to take in the odd shade of blue that blocked out the vacuum of space.
"... I see, so you feel like you're ready then? Unfortunately I'm not hiding anything from you. I'm Grail, I have Myuu's memories. I have no recollection of who you really were since Myuu didn't either." (Grail)
"I see... You see, I've been thinking a lot lately since we finally had breaks. I crawled my way out from hell to survive in the city and there were many other odd things. But despite the contract magic blocking my cognition from reaching the answer, I can still roughly pinpoint when I switched bodies with Kaori.
The exact time of exchange has been impeded from my ability to think about it. But this sense of 'self' isn't. At the very least, it was after Kaori reached central when she switched bodies. 1 year and 3 months after The Great Disaster. " (Kaede)
"... I know it's ironic as my mission is to save Kaori, but instead now I'm going to persuade you to do the opposite.
Isn't it fine? To stay like this. If you found out your actual identity, who knows if you could return and integrate with that previous life... Or this present life. You only stand to lose everything to pursue something so lofty. " (Grail)
"... That would be doing a disservice to how Kaori has lived her life up until now! " (Kaede)
" And I'm saying as someone with Myuu's memories, she wouldn't give a crap!!! " (Grail)
Kaede takes a few steps forward. Speaking of which, she had started calling herself Kaede, but she didn't particularly remember if there was any inspiration for it. She simply chose something that she thought sounded nice from her artificial memories.
"It's an inevitability! What?! Were you scared of disappearing if Kaori returns to normal?!" (Kaede)
"... Yes." (Grail)
"..." (Kaede)
She wasn't surprised but she couldn't relate either. The feeling of iminent death, an emotion that crawls at the back of one's mind, reminding them of their inevitable demise at every waking second of their existence. To be honest, she couldn't understand it. As an essentially new born existence, her outlook on life was that she had many things that she wanted to do, there was no time to think of the end. It was fundamentally different and incompatible to someone like Grail who was born with an indefinite lifespan, it could end at any time or continue on forever. She had no way to know what destiny had in stored for her.
"... Anyway, Kaori was a kind person. Her passion and love... Would be an understatement to describe her character. One that could give ceaseless love to magical girls, that was the kind of person she was. So she would be completely fine with you using her body since you're a magical girl who treats her friends well. " (Grail)
"... I know now. I am fundamentally different from Kaori, so I have grown out of the need to differentiate between ourselves. Her friends had probably picked up on some weird details already. Thinking along these lines, my time as 'Kaede' looks like it'll be coming to an end soon. " (Kaede)
"..." (Grail)
... The environment, the scenery hadn't changed one bit. I've kept walking along the coast but it seemed to be the wrong way, no matter how far it stretched, the beached looked the exact same. Even the shadows formed by the sun's rays. There was something unsettling hidden in this place's backdrop.
The first assumption, typical of magical spaces is that this beach was a loop. Simply walking in circles gives the impression that it's an infinite space, but in actuality they were treading in the very same space over and over again. This saves up on the cost of magical particles to maintain the place, at the same time it serves to create an illusion of unending despair...
I was getting irritated by this temperature... As a magical girl I wasn't so vulnerable that normal temperatures could affect my body, but my sense of touch is still there. The mellow warmth bordering on cold.... Is very irritating. This should be a traversable space for whoever built this place, meaning that there should be a way through that doesn't involve magic.
Clearly following the coast wasn't the way, but it shouldn't be such a binary situation of 'follow the coast' or 'don't follow the coast'. There must be something way more to it, but there was no clue. Kaede found a spot and sweeped her dress below her legs as she sat in the sand. She closed her eyes as her thoughts dug through the issue like a drill, advancing deeper and deeper.
"Ah... It's no use huh. I wonder how long Willen would even be here for. If time flows differently then I'm screwed..." (Kaede)
"... There doesn't seem to be any vulnerabilities in the magic. It may be a shoddy wall but it properly encapsulates the inner workings of this memory magic. " (Grail)
" Thinking about it, there would likely be many different rooms. While it would be prudent for each room to have a different way to escape... " (Kaede)
" That's inefficient and unlikely. " (Grail)
" Alright." (Kaede)
She stood back up with a swift hop, her eyes fixated only on her goal, dismissing the environment completely. She realised it when she closed her eyes to think for a bit, if she focused only on her sense of magical particles... It was moving strangely like the temperature. Whye the temperature felt cold but bordering on lukewarm... Why she felt excessively cold all the time... She couldn't grasp her sense of touch properly.
The entire time her body had been changing its temperature drastically from warm to cold, that was why it incited a sense of frustration in Kaede. She didn't really mind the cold that much when she was outside this place, she had adapted to the coldness, yet she didn't pay proper attention to what was happening inside the room.
She saw the bright sky with her eyes, breathed the cool air with her nose, felt the rushing breeze with her skin, tasted the salty sea air with her tongue and heard the vigorous waves crashing with her ears. She had used every single sense except for the vital one that all magical girls are equipped with. The 6th sense of magical particles, knowing where they are and having the ability to use them. Depending on one's proficiency with magic, they could have honed this sense to a higher extent than others and come out stronger as a result.
In other words, she failed to use Kaori's strength, her extraordinary sense for magical particles which was far above the average, only possible due to her passive instantly processing the information of the world around her. Unless they were A grade or above, one wouldn't usually expect their radar's range to match up to hers, this was also deeply rooted to their ability to use that 6th sense.
Over here. A subtle 'hole' in the wall of magic that forms the rooms parameters, one that even Grail couldn't detect. She used her gradients to widen this hole further, forcibly opening Gail's eyes to it. Then she steps through it.
"... Amazi-" (Grail)
She lost all her words, cut off by the bizarre sight before her eyes. Wreckage and ruins beyond where the eye's sight could feasibly reach, surpassing even a magical girl's enhanced eyesight.
"... This place... " (Kaede)
It was here wasn't it? Despite having no experience with The Great Disaster in her memories, she instinctively understood. That freezing tundra that overpowered the blazing beach sun and brought it down to a luke warm that froze the skin... It was a memory within another memory. She had been in these ruins the entire time, it was a memory of a freezing evil that warped and overthrew humanity. With no shelter, no warmt and no help in sight, it was the embodiment of despair given form.
The ruins of The Great Disaster continue to be such a symbol, like an oppressive force that crushes all that stands under it. A symbol of malice and curses that haunt humanity.
Think, what would Kaori do? How would she react? Kaede puts away her fears in this manner and stands against the pressure, resisting against it with her will. Her stride is calm but heavy and her mind was steeled but disturbed. Nevertheless, she puts another foot forward each time until the very end. Her back was still straight as a flag pole.
"This is the actual room... A double layered labyrinth like space, that hole was basically a key lock. But this thing is random in every direction, it looks vast too...
Well, if I don't target the magic it should be fine." (Kaede)
She materialises her trusty void rapier, she had been continuously using this weapon by subconsciously willing its shape into existence, as if its memory was embedded into her flesh rather than her memories. It felt like there was a long history behind it, at the same time there wasn't... This inability to grasp the rapier's true form and history eclipsed everything else, reminding her of her own resolve.
A single swing, the blade expands on its own to cover a kilometre, blowing every bit of rubble away to form a clear space. A wave of dust rushes from every direction, before crashing into one another and dispersing.
"I see, it would make sense that it was in the ground. There's so much debris and fear everywhere that no one would have found it unless they cleared it away." (Kaede)
"... Just in case, we should watch out for the sky too. It seems the lock could be anywhere depending on the environment. The method to get through is the same, but the location of the lock differs to bolster defence. " (Grail)
"So there's still some attempt to maximise defences... They're hiding something. Let's find it." (Kaede)