*
Kaede extends her hand. What does she see that the others don't? This is the precise kind of inexplicable faith that Kaori would exhibit. Willen grabs the scabbard and sword tightly to her chest, walking closer to Kaede, she whispers then walks past them.
'Please... Go away.' (Willen)
Not knowing if Willen saw through her, Kaede keeps a sullen expression concealed. She faces the ground and mulls over Willen's words and her expression. There was no need to be Kaori to understand that expression. That desperation, the yearning for help, but at the same time being restricted from even that. Kaede grips her fingers tighter. It was one more person to add to the list of people she couldn't save.
She turns around with a determined face, her eyes sharp and clear, looking at the goal ahead. No, the goal hasn't changed at all. All this time, the objective was simply to get to know Willen. Which includes saving her.
For the first time she felt included, that she was at the eye of a storm. Her heart no longer felt heavy, she found something that she truly wanted to do. Not just to solve some kind of mystery or decipher Kaori's morals, but to achieve something that she wanted to achieve. To live is to suffer, but it is also to live.
"I see you've found yourself, boss." (Barius)
"Yeah. I won't let the defeat by the Progenitor wear me down anymore. I will no longer hesitate." (Kaede)
In the time that she spends hesitating, she could save something important to her. At the same time, she spout something that would make sense. In other words, a convenient excuse. But the other 2 seemed to buy it, so she didn't dwell much on it.
'... Grail, for everyone's sake, let's do our best... Even if these things in front of me, this entire life isn't mine... That isn't an excuse to let go of it all. All the more I should take care of Kaori's life and prepare everything nicely for when she returns. ' (Kaede)
'...' (Grail)
' Fine I'll just leave you to it.' (Kaede)
They began walking back, in the same direction as Willen. With how it seemed, at least Willen wasn't running away from them.
"As things stand, shouldn't we just ask Willen?" (Neli)
"... If it was that simple, she would have told us just now. I don't think what she told us was a lie, but she's withholding some other information...
We'll deal with the most obvious problem first. The Demon King. " (Kaede)
An uncomfortable premonition, it's inching closer. Does Willen have future sight? She seemed confident that the Demon King will break through the line built by the Grundo alliance. Kaede feels her heartbeat becoming erratic at the thought of it, an unfamiliar trepidation eases into her chest. Ever since the fight with Grail, she felt like she was viewing the world through a new lens. Ironically, Grail who got depressed had fulfilled her objective.
With their sights set on what to do, they returned to their quarters. They reach there in the evening, walking with heavy footsteps. They had done a lot of strolling that day as they were exploring the memories for exits. Willen got ahold of the sword that made that labyrinth and as its new owner, should be able to properly control it so it doesn't go berserk and create another memory labyrinth.
They reach their individual rooms and were out of commission for the night. Kaede laid in her bed, feeling the soft sheets warming up under her back as she stared blankly at the ceiling. There was a lot to take in, especially with the fight with Grail. It ended up being the most heart stirring part of that little investigation despite being unrelated. There was also Willen's words to consider. Kaede was specifically targeted when Willen told her to go away. Kaori had some connection with the case, a connection invisible even to Kaede.
"Grail, we have to talk." (Kaede)
"..." (Grail)
Kaede entered the space of her mind, a unique dimension only egos like Kaede and Grail could enter. It was precisely because they were egos that they were not bound to their souls, instead they could freely seperate from their souls though it would be disadvantageous. She opened her eyes to be greeted by a vast grassy plain. The blades of grass shone like emeralds under the radiant sun that was not too blinding but bright enough to illuminate every corner of this space.
A black sludge rises from the ground, at first she thought it was a monster that had invaded her mind space. But the sludge began to shape itself into a girl. A pair of twin tails sparkles and a pair of hips swerved. The sludge then expands before shrinking back while simultaneously changing colours. They shaped her dress and her piercing leaf shoulder pads. A pair of piercing and lustrous emerald eyes stare deep into Kaede's soil and at her ego, literally.
Kaede opens up with a powerful throw of her rapier as soon as she opened her eyes. Then her body vanishes, reappearing in front of Grail just to catch the rapier. The needle thin blade tears her skin away from the sheer velocity that it was thrown at. She chose to catch it since Grail was refusing to react to the very end. She simply glared at Kaede wordlessly. Her indignation seeped into the atmosphere.
Dematerialising the rapier, even Kaede was at a loss of what to do now. Barraged by the tranquil wind inside this digital space, she thought that perhaps a change of pace is needed. Did they really need to talk things through? Grail would unwillingly be stuck there with her... So in the end, it might not matter what she thought. It was a heartless and cold line of thought that left no one satisfied. It might make it easier for Kaede, but she knew she wasn't the type of person who could easily abandon another existence rooted to herself.
As the one who granted her the gift of awareness, life and got her to accept herself... Kaede wanted Grail to be happy. It was why she dragged them into this space in the first place. She found it strange herself, why she cared this much about someone who just tried to kill her. Her heart pulsates to the rhythm of her lung's respiration, adrenaline flushes into the recesses of her mind, piercing her heart with a rigorous momentum. It felt like her heart was being squeezed and in pain, she wanted to be for Grail what Grail was to her, a saviour.
Nevermind talking, she forms a set of tables, tea and snacks in that digital space. They sat down without any formalities and relaxed immediately. Kaede brought the tea to her lips while Grail bit onto some of the cookies.
"Haa~" (Kaede)
*crunch crunch* (Grail)
It was actually too hard to talk after all...!! She thought it would be a simple fight, and that winning in strength would allow her to win in ideology or whatever. But this entire situation was just too weird. Grail was dissatisfied with Kaede's state, Kaede had no idea what she wanted to do in the future other than fight the Demon King and prove Grail wrong by protecting humanity with her own strength.
But right now she was at an awful bottleneck. In terms of strength, she was faithfully following in Kaori's footsteps, she's still at B grade, likely at a similarly difficult bridge that was hard even for Kaori to pass and reach the A grade. In the end, Kaori pretty much abused her body over and over to an insane amount even for magical girls, that was how she steadily broke through her natural limit and reached A grade.
Like how muscles build back stronger, she grew in magic power through rigorous usage with Magia Retainment, which overstimulates her well and will stat to an unnatural degree that it was an absurdly rare even among magical girls. Continuously operating at 100% well usage, prolonging the technique as battles lasted longer... Weaks of training by using one's whole well become condensed into a few seconds.
It drains her stamina extremely quick, but since she gradually adapted from 10% to 100%, she also had a large reserve of stamina to counteract it. 1 month's worth of magic training was about 30 seconds of 100% Magia retainment, not to mention Magia Retainment: Perpetual that easily rose above 100% exponentially.
All these while, Kaede was thinking of such useless things. But she knew from the start, that if things didn't get solved now, it would only brew up more problems down the line. Taking a deep breath-
"I'm sorry!" (Both)
They stared at each other, jaws agape. Truly, she thought the entire thing was completely foolish. Grail had been in deep though to herself, that she hadn't even noticed the rapier that was thrown at all. She reevaluated everything that she thought about and was sorting her thoughts the entire time. At the end of it all, both of them arrived at a single conclusion. For this kind of difficult and moronic issue, isn't it better to apologise first? If one of them acts as the adult and pleads for forgiveness first, then the conversation could at least get some where.
"... Fufufu... Fufufuhaha?!!?" (Kaede)
Kaede couldn't contain her ridicule, she laughed at Grail, at the situation then herself...
"fufu... Fufufu" (Grail)
Grail saw things in a similar way. She lashed out because of her bottled emotions, but it's not like Kaede wanted to be weak in the first place. If she was frustrated with Kaede's lack of power, how was Kaede who was at the centre of the situation feel? Wouldn't she naturally feel the futility of her own efforts? The results are most apparent to oneself after all. It's not like Kaede could immediately grow stronger like Kaori could, that was a miracle reserved for her who fought with her dreams on the line.
Kaede herself felt that she was lacking motivation, she felt completely lost and without a direction to move towards. Currently, she had found a burning passion that she could call a goal. A meaning to invest her life in, a duty that she can put her all into.
Finishing the last of her guffaw, her expression turned serious as it gazed intently at Grail's.
"Fuuh~... This... May not be the last time I'll disappoint you." (Kaede)
"Mhmm." (Grail)
Her response showed that she was calm and was faithfully listening. It relieved Kaede's heart a little.
"I just want to say, that I've... Found a goal. I want to prove my strength, specifically by defeating the Demon King." (Kaede)
"... I suppose this entire thing... About your existence... About Kaori, will be put on the back burner.
I can't do anything about that, after all due to the contract, you have priority control over Kaori's soul and body. I doubt my pleas are worth listening to you, and I may seem a little confusing.
But remember this. I'm not giving up. It's a strategic retreat! One day... I'll beat you. " (Grail)
" I'll welcome your attacks. I'll prove it, a strength that is not Kaori's, but my own. " (Kaede)
Kaede replies with a dash of her own mockery and a declaration. She was hoping it wouldn't get this drastic, but if her guess was correct then Grail was now able to materialise in the real world as well. It was only a matter of time before they become enemies. Kaede wanted to live as Kaede, at the same time she had the audacity to use Kaori's powers. Grail likely wants to forcefully take Kaede out of Kaori's body, hoping the original would return. Perhaps it is not hope but conviction that drives Grail.
An absolutely baseless faith in the personage that Grail could only admire. It must hurt to have your existence be based on someone else's, that the two could sympathise about. But they wouldn't allow personal feelings to interfere. What each of them wanted was to put not only how they feel but their entire being on the line.
Kaede exits the space feeling refreshed, her mind had rested anew. She takes in the view of her room, staring thoughtlessly at the ceiling. She takes in a breath of the stale room air while hearing the soft humming of her own breath... Huh? It smelt great... Well not great but not bad either. At least it was pleasant. Was it a perk of being a magical girl, she was constantly transformed because she was told that Kaori was always transformed. It served as great training, like running a marathon for an entire day.
Most magical girls untransformed and rest during a period of the day, Kaori was the odd one for always being transformed... Well, she was a guy. Perhaps she didn't want to be the only guy in the group. What was the proportion again? 10%? Most magical girls don't reveal their true self in front of each other, so perhaps 10% was a low estimate. With such dull thoughts, she blacked out.